Spain arrests police chief after more than $21 million found in cocaine bust

Spain has arrested one of its top policemen after 20 million euros were found hidden in the walls of his house, as part of an investigation into the investigation. the largest amount of cocaine ever found in the country.

Described as intelligent and hard-working, Oscar Sanchez Gil was until recently the head of the fraud and anti-money laundering unit of the Spanish National Police in Madrid.

Police arrested him last week along with 15 other people, including his lover, a police source told AFP. The source did not reveal the name of his romantic partner, who is also a police officer in the Madrid region.

During the raid, police found about 20 million euros, or about $21.1 million, hidden in the walls and ceiling of the couple's house in Alcala de Henares, a town of about 195,000 people located about 18 kilometers east of the Spanish capital.

The police also found one million euros in his office, hidden in two locked cabinets, in bills of 50 to 500 euros, according to a police source.

The couple were charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and membership of a criminal organization after they appeared before a Madrid court last week, which saw them remanded in custody, a court source told AFP.

Spanish media said the arrests were related to the seizure of cocaine in Algeciras on October 14 from a container ship that had arrived from Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, which is a hub for drug trafficking. The cocaine was hidden in banana boxes. Fruit screens were installed to hide the cocaine, police said in a news release.

Police said the drug bust was the biggest ever in Spain and “one of the biggest busts in the world”.

The container was destined for a Spanish trader based in the southeastern coastal city of Alicante “who had been receiving large amounts of fruit from Ecuador for years”, authorities said. Spanish police said they cooperated with the Ecuadorian National Police to stop the shipment.

Spain, which is the main gateway to Europe for cocaine from Latin America, is involved in the transportation of drugs from Latin America. Seizures of cocaine in European ports have reached record levels, Europol's drug unit chief Robert Fay told AFP.

Spain worked with his colleagues in June to bind 40 people in a mission to try to break into a large drug trafficking facility. July in Spain participate in the dismantling of a large network transporting cocaine from Latin America to Europe by boat, involving 50 arrests in eight countries. 26 of those arrested were arrested in Spain.