Officers discovered 1.2 tonnes of cocaine on board and arrested the three British crew members
Norwegian Pazooki Farhad, dubbed the Professor, escaped a police operation to take down the gang which Spanish detectives went public with last month.
But he was behind bars in South America this week after being held at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport.
Local reports said he had flown to Colombia from an undisclosed location after being summoned to a meeting with Mexican cartel leaders, said to have been supplying him with cocaine, following the police bust.
Last month the National Crime Agency said ten British nationals had been arrested as part of a “multi-agency investigation” into drug trafficking from South America to Europe launched in 2020.
Pictures released by Colombian police show the two arrested Norwegians
A 30-year-old man, from Stornoway, who skippered a Spanish-registered yacht was arrested after it was raided 1,200 miles east of Martinique in the Caribbean by a French navy frigate on 18 December 2023.
Officers discovered 1.2 tonnes of cocaine on-board and arrested the three British crew members.
Spanish police accused Farhad last month of recruiting sailboat crews for the world’s “largest sailboat organisation operating between South America and Europe” before delegating day-to-day control to an aide.
A second Norwegian named as Bernsten Bjarte was also held by police in the Colombian city of Barranquilla.
A spokesman for Colombia’s National Police, which released mugshots of the two men, said: “Our officers have managed to locate and detain two Norwegian citizens with assistance from Spanish National Police.
“One of these men is Pazooki Farhad, alias ‘The Professor”
“The capture of ‘The Professor’ forms part of Operation Mentor, developed by the Spanish Police, which has already led to 50 arrests in seven countries.
“He was held at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, while Bernsten Bjarte was arrested in Barranquilla after illegally entering the city on a sailing boat.
“He is suspected of having strategic and operational functions when it comes to large-scale drug trafficking, such as the designation of the vessels as well as the make-up of the crews.
“The man dubbed ‘The Professor’ is suspected of leading the largest ‘narco sailboat’ organisation in the world.
“It’s known he comes from a wealthy Norwegian family and that he’s been captured at least 40 times for different crimes.
“It’s estimated he’s been involved in drug trafficking for more than 20 years.”
In a statement last month after Spanish police went public with the Operation Mentor arrests, Britain’s NCA said: “Ten British nationals have been arrested as part of multi-agency investigation into drug trafficking from South America to Europe.
“The joint operation was launched in 2020 and has been conducted by the Spanish Policía Nacional, National Crime Agency, Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the European MAOC, with the support of EUROPOL.
“At that time intelligence identified a British crime group based in Spain responsible for trafficking cocaine across the Atlantic.
“Since then, worldwide law enforcement agencies have arrested 52 people – 28 in Spain – and seized 1.5 tonnes of cocaine, eight boats and 36 vehicles, as well as firearms and ammunition.
“The criminal network owned a fleet of vessels which were used to transport the drugs from South America to Europe via Spain.
“One such vessel, a Spanish-registered yacht, was intercepted 1,200 miles east of Martinique by a French navy frigate on 18 December 2023.
Officers discovered 1.2 tonnes of cocaine on-board and arrested the three British crew members, including the skipper, a 30-year-old man from Stornoway, Scotland. “The long-running investigation identified routes used by the organised crime group to bring vast quantities of drugs to Spain for onward distribution, including into the UK.
“They sailed back and forth from Spanish coastal locations, such as Valencia, Alicante, and Málaga, to Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Panama.
“Overseeing the entire operation was the Norwegian figurehead of the international crime network, who is presumed to have been operating in drug trafficking for more than two decades.
“He had the full trust of the Colombian and Mexican cartels, and coordinated the production of the drugs and its transportation through South America until it could be shipped to Spain.
“The investigation found that the money generated by the drug shipments was reinvested in new operations and laundered through a network of businesswomen that operated in several countries.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-03 07:05:00
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