Financial hub for cocaine networks

The Spanish National Police Central Drug and Organised Crime Unit and the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit dismantled a clandestine financial structure known as the Dubai Bank. Working with the Antidrug Prosecutor of the Audiencia Nacional and Europol's Operational Task Force TOKEN, investigators included police specialists from Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Scotland. The investigation established that the organization functioned as a full-service illicit bank, providing loans, hawala transfers, cryptocurrency transactions, and shell companies to international drug trafficking cartels. Operating from the United Arab Emirates through regional brokers, the network allowed criminal syndicates to finance maritime shipments and integrate drug revenues into legal financial systems.

“It is crime as a service, I provide you with a service for which I will definitely get paid.”

International arrests and asset seizures

Operation Drahab resulted in the arrest of 21 suspects across five countries and the location of more than €20 million in assets, including properties, bank accounts, and vehicles. Fourteen suspects were arrested in Spain, including the principal broker of the banking network and a regional broker based in Málaga. Seven other suspects were apprehended abroad through international arrest warrants, with four arrests in the United Arab Emirates, one in Egypt, one in the Netherlands, and one in Sweden. Judicial authorities issued 19 international arrest warrants, of which seven have been executed and 12 remain active. Chief inspector Encarna Ortega explained that the brokers created businesses, real estate transactions, and lottery winnings to absorb drug revenue into the legal banking system.

Spain14

United Arab Emirates4

Egypt1

Netherlands1

Sweden1

Spain

14 suspects

United Arab Emirates

4 suspects

Egypt

1 suspects

Netherlands

1 suspects

Sweden

1 suspects

Data from the article text

Maritime origins of the investigation

The investigation began following the interception of the cargo vessel Nehir off the coast of Asturias in 2021. Officers seized 1,835 kilograms of cocaine on board before the crew deliberately sank the ship near the port of Gijón in an effort to conceal an additional 1,650 kilograms. Financial analysis of the shipping operation revealed systematic use of the Dubai Bank network to fund maritime transport. In the Galician region of O Salnés, police arrested logistical operatives who handled coastal boat landings, including Ramón Canto Nine, who was detained alongside family members in Cambados and Vilanova de Arousa before being granted conditional release.

Fugitives and high-profile targets

Police identified four primary drug trafficking figures who relied on the banking network for operational funding. Three of the targeted leaders, including a Colombian national known as Poker Face, a Swedish figure, and a British suspect known as Spartan, were taken into custody. The fourth individual, 46-year-old Madrid native Alejandro Salgado Vega, known as El Tigre, remains at large and was added to Europol's most-wanted list on 9 September 2026. Authorities also connect Salgado to an interception of 13 tonnes of cocaine at the port of Algeciras in 2024, a case that prompted a 2025 court summons in the Audiencia Nacional.

“We have managed to attack the financing of the so-called aces or number ones of drug trafficking that flooded Europe with cocaine, so for a time we will be safer.”