"We're going crazy": heroin pills from Colombia detected for the first time

Barcelona"We're going crazy," says a National Police commander, expressing the increasing difficulty of pursuing drug cartels. In a globalized and ever-changing world, drug trafficking also transcends borders and constantly innovates in the ways it extends its reach. Traditionally, heroin has arrived in powder form or in bulk from Afghanistan—estimated to supply 80% of the world's opiate users—via a land route through Turkey. But all this is changing, as demonstrated by the latest discovery in Madrid. For the first time, heroin in pill form has been found in Europe and the world, originating from Colombia. This Friday, the National Police reported the seizure of eight kilos of heroin divided into thousands of pills and the arrest of five people in a parking lot of a shopping center in southern Madrid. It's a new and pioneering format: heroin pills must be diluted before injection, which is how the drug is usually consumed. This format is simply a "marketing strategy," explains Alberto Morales, chief commissioner of the Central Narcotics Brigade of the Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO). This format is designed to "attract a young audience." Furthermore, the pills featured a skull graphic, which is also a marketing tactic, to remind them of brands that use this logo, such as a popular clothing chain. It was all part of a market study, a kind of test, to see how the public would receive this new format. And some of the intended recipients were Catalans: in the wiretapped phone conversations, those under investigation admitted that one of the drug's destinations was Barcelona. Once on the street, each pill would have been worth between eight and ten euros.

But the heroin came from Colombia. This marks the debut of a new, previously little-identified route, common for cocaine but not for heroin; and now it appears that both drugs follow the same path. According to police sources, they are investigating whether the pills were manufactured in Mexico, where cartels divide up drug labs and produce highly feared substances like fentanyl. In fact, the same sources warn that Colombian cartels are increasingly "at the service" of the Mexicans. Colombian police have also recently warned that they are detecting a growing number of Mexican "emissaries" operating in Colombia. All of this makes the police task more difficult. There is already cocaine coming from Türkiye and heroine of Colombia, when traditionally it had been the other way around. The trend of "crime as a service "And the disappearance of borders" when we talk about drugs, says Commissioner Morales.

Drugs on airplanes

The drugs that have now been seized are believed to have arrived in Spain by air, hidden in luggage that landed at Barajas Airport. However, the National Police investigation, in collaboration with the US DEA and the Colombian police, had already been underway for some time. It all began at a kebab shop in Madrid. A Turkish citizen held frequent meetings at this establishment. He was a man "very well known to the police," according to Morales. In fact, he had only been free for a few months after serving an 18-year prison sentence for drug trafficking.

Since his release, he had been acting suspiciously: he never used his mobile phone, and whenever he went to one of the meetings at the kebab shop, he employed counter-surveillance techniques, such as making frequent stops to ensure no one was following him. He also wore sunglasses and caps to conceal his face. He didn't travel in his own car either, but rather by public transport or in rental cars with drivers. He was always accompanied by another Turkish national. Meanwhile, the police began identifying the participants in the meetings. Two of them were Dominican men who would later allegedly be responsible for organizing the drug shipment by plane and picking it up at the airport. The network was completed by a Colombian man who was supposedly the link to the cartel from which the heroin originated. At the meetings, however, the Turk was the one calling the shots.

Once they had the complete picture, the police decided to intervene. During November, officers arrived at the shopping center parking lot during a drug exchange, which took place in broad daylight. They seized the eight kilos of heroin, which were in a gym bag, and arrested those responsible. Three of the five suspects have been remanded in custody in a case led by the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National Court and the Madrid Court of Instruction number 17. The police believe that this first shipment was a test and that they were negotiating others. The investigation continues, also because they have frozen €100,000 in cryptocurrencies and are tracing the money's path.