The Catalan police force has dismantled a major international drug trafficking organisation with direct links to the Neapolitan Camorra, which used Barcelona as a logistics hub for shipping vast quantities of narcotics to Italy. The year-long investigation culminated in ten arrests and the seizure of hundreds of kilograms of drugs and significant assets.
Your browser does not support the video tag.
In an operation involving 150 officers, the Mossos d’Esquadra carried out nine raids across Barcelona and the neighbouring city of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat on 3 March, 2026. The detainees, aged between 25 and 46, face charges of drug trafficking and belonging to a criminal organisation. During the broader investigation, police intercepted a total of 300kg of cocaine, 500kg of hashish, and 10kg of marijuana. The final raids also yielded €140,000 in cash, a high-end vehicle, and a motorcycle, according to a statement from the police.
A Year-Long Investigation
The complex case began over a year ago, on 7 February 2025, in the industrial estate of Cornellà de Llobregat. Officers from the local Guardia Urbana spotted a suspicious transaction between a lorry driver and the driver of another vehicle. Upon inspection, they discovered three backpacks containing 70kg of cocaine, a discovery that triggered a full-scale investigation by the Mossos’ elite Criminal Investigation Division (DIC).
Investigators soon uncovered evidence of a deeply entrenched criminal network that used the Catalan capital to acquire narcotics and coordinate their onward shipment to Italy. The group’s ringleader, a man with close ties to the Camorra, one of Italy’s oldest and largest criminal organisations, directed the entire operation from a luxury flat he shared with his partner in Barcelona’s affluent Diagonal Mar neighbourhood.
Modus Operandi: Chickens, Fruit and Ferries
Police sources, cited in La Vanguardia, detailed a sophisticated operational structure. The leader, who travelled frequently outside of Spain, would negotiate drug deals with suppliers. Once a deal was struck, another member of the network would fly in from Naples, often just hours before the exchange, to receive the illicit cargo at a pre-arranged location.
For large quantities, transactions took place at a warehouse in Montcada i Reixac, an industrial town north of Barcelona. There, the network carefully concealed the drugs among legal goods, most often crates of fruit and frozen chickens. They then transported the consignments to Italy either by road or on ferries departing from the Port of Barcelona bound for Civitavecchia, near Rome. This case highlights the ongoing challenge police face in tackling organised crime in Barcelona’s metropolitan area, a problem seen in other recent operations, including a raid on a drug network based in L’Hospitalet with links to the Basque Country.
The Net Closes
Throughout 2025, investigators dealt several significant blows to the organisation. On 1 August, they intercepted a lorry carrying fruit to Italy and discovered 180kg of cocaine, 200kg of hashish, and 10kg of marijuana hidden inside. Just over a month later, on 8 September, police stopped another lorry, this time transporting chickens, and found it was carrying 49kg of cocaine and 307kg of hashish.
The final phase of the operation on 3 March marked the culmination of the police effort, as detailed by Tot Barcelona. The coordinated raids in Barcelona and L’Hospitalet effectively dismantled the group’s command and control structure. Police brought the ten arrested individuals before the court in Cornellà on 5 March. The investigation, which was supported by the local branch of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, remains open, and the Mossos have not ruled out further arrests as they continue to dismantle the remnants of the network.
This major operation is one of several recent high-profile actions by the Mossos against international crime rings, including a similar cross-border drug trafficking investigation that also involved raids in Barcelona and L’Hospitalet targeting routes to Italy.
