ARCHIVED - Three members of network introducing irregular immigrants from Algeria arrested in Fuente Álamo

The gang arranged transport in 'patera taxi' type boats which were met on the Spanish coastline and their occupants assisted to reach their final destinations

The Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal organization based in Almería that brings illegal immigrants from Algeria to Spain, and has arrested three people from the Region of Murcia for alleged crimes against foreign citizens and belonging to a criminal group.

This type of organised and co-ordinated trafficking has become increasingly common in the last few months and there have been several “waves” of small boats coming from Algeria, spreading the resources of the coastguard too thinly, arriving simultaneously in Alicante, Murcia and Almeria this summer.

The investigation, codenamed operation 'Limestone', began at the end of July 2020, when investigators determined that a person living in Fuente Álamo was part of a network with a stable structure in North African countries and Spain, which specialisied in using “pateras”, small boats, to bring irregular immigrants into Spain from the African coast.

Members of the network operated on the border between the North African countries, facilitating the passage of people who were transferred and housed in homes located in Oran (Algeria), where they stayed until they could board a boat destined for the Almeria coast.

The network used a portfolio of skippers of 'patera taxi' type boats with which the coordinated entry through different parts of the eastern Almeria was planned.

The modus operandi used consisted of the arrival of groups of boats, coordinating time slots and places of disembarkation, in order to make it difficult for the Civil Guard to act at the time of the arrival of immigrants, as the boats were spread out across a wide area of coastline, and while the Guardia and coastguard were busy attending the arrival of one boat, others would arrive at a number of beaches almost simultaneously, making it impossible to intercept all of the vessels.

During the investigation, the Civil Guard agents learned that on September 16th a “wave”of boats with people from Oran (Algeria) was planned, which would enter Spain via the eastern coast of Almeria.
La Benemérita established a police vigilance operation that culminated in the arrest of three people residing in the Murcian town of Fuente Álamo, who had gone to the province of Almería and were waiting to receive the boats as they arrived in different parts of the coastline.

Both boats and the gang members waiting to receive them, were detained.

The investigations carried out within the framework of the 'Limestone' operation have been carried out through Investigative Court number 4 of Vera (Almería) . The investigation remains open in order to discover the involvement of other people.