ARCHIVED - Cartagena police seize 30 million euros worth of cocaine

345 kilos of cocaine was destined for Madrid, Murcia, Valencia and Alicante

Five people have been arrested and 345 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of 30 million euros confiscated by the Policía Nacional in the port of Valencia after the drugs were found hidden in a container which arrived in Spain from Chile.

The arrested are believed to have been planning to distribute the cocaine in Madrid, Valencia, Alicante and the Region of Murcia, but were thwarted by a Cartagena police operation which began at the end of last year when they became aware of the shipment from Valparaíso to Valencia, which was planned for the beginning of Easter Week.

When officers opened the freight container which was under suspicion they found ten sports bags, each containing thirty bars of 85% pure cocaine, and the five members of the smuggling organization who had been previously identified were duly placed under arrest. The five men are Spanish, Colombian and Dominican, and the property where they intended to store the drugs before distributing them was searched before they were imprisoned pending trial.

This is the largest cocaine haul yet recovered in an operation directed by Cartagena police.