Spanish police announced on Saturday 4th March 2017 that they had dismantled a Colombian cocaine trafficking network in an operation that arrested 24 people and seized 2.4 tons of drugs.

The suspected drug traffickers, belonging to two groups linked to the “Cucuta cartel”, “were trying to settle in Spain,” the head of the Spanish police narcotics squad, Ricardo Toro, told a news conference in the city of A Coruña.

The seizure “is one of the most important” carried out in recent years in Spain on cocaine trafficking, he said.

“The majority” of those arrested are of Colombian nationality and the rest are Spanish, he said, adding that many are “very important figures in international cocaine trafficking.”

His job was to get the drug and distribute it in Spain and Europe through double-bottomed cars, his goal being to “establish a new route to Spain” for cocaine, according to a police statement.

Spain is the main drug entry point in Europe due to its proximity to North Africa, where cannabis is produced, and to its ties to South America, where cocaine comes from.