Police Arrest ‘Spanish Pablo Escobar’, 43 Associates

Spanish authorities arrested one of the top drug lords believed behind the distribution of large quantities of cocaine throughout Europe. The European cartel was allegedly led by a narco known as Sito Miñanco, who reportedly smuggled tons of drugs into the country and laundered the proceeds.

As a result of the large-scale investigation, Spanish authorities managed to seize more than five tons of narcotics, arrest 43 individuals, seize 171 properties, five ships, and freeze 139 bank accounts, information released by the Spanish National Police revealed. The main target of the operation was Jose Ramon Prado Bugallo, who is better known as Sito Miñanco and was the leader of a criminal organization with ties to Colombia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Holland.

According to authorities, the man who is commonly described as the Spanish Pablo Escobar began his criminal career in the 1980s as a bootlegger and eventually moved into drug trafficking. He was arrested in 1991 in connection with drug trafficking and served seven years in prison. By 2001, he was back in prison after being tied to a smuggling attempt where his organization tried to move nearly four tons of cocaine on a ship. He spent 10 years behind bars and was on a supervised release of sorts where he only had to spend his nights in a facility.

According to Spanish authorities, Miñanco was able to control his associates despite his sentence and expanded the cartel on two continents. The criminal organization was able to move large quantities of cocaine into Spain using ships. The cartel also used a sophisticated money laundering operation in the shipping and vessel trades.

 Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.

Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.