Man suspected to be Europe's biggest drug kingpin arrested
The man alleged to have been behind a €200m shipment of cocaine to France in 2013 has been arrested in Spain. The man, named in the UK and local media as Robert Dawes, was arrested on November 12 but details have only been released now by Europol for operational reasons.
In a press release the EU's police agency said that the arrest was the result of a two year operation by the French OCRTIS-DCPJ, Spanish Guardia Civil UCO and the UK National Crime Agency (NCA).
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undefined 00:00 Dawes is suspected to be the man behind an enormous shipment of cocaine that was intercepted at Charles de Gaulle airport in September 2013.
French police intercepted 1.3 tonnes of the drug, valued at €200m, hidden in suitcases on a plane that arrived from Venezuela.
The Guardia Civil swooped on a villa in Benalmadena in the Costa del Sol and arrested the 44-year-old. Today he has been extradited to France.
The gang's reach is said to be global and a number of individuals connected to it have been arrested in various countries in recent years.
Spanish authorities say in a release published today that have been monitoring Dawes since 2007 and they allege that he leads the largest criminal organisation in the UK and Europe.
The operation conducted by Europol mirrored the investigation into Dapper Don Christy Kinahan, known as Operation Shovel.
