Drug Trafficking Ring Busted: 4 Arrested for Kidnapping Moroccan Man in Alicante

The investigation into the kidnapping of this Moroccan in Alicante began 8 months ago, in April last year to be precise, after he himself went to the Civil Guard offices in the town of San Juan de Alicante to report his kidnapping. He said that four armed individuals had kidnapped him as he was going home to Callosa de Segura in Alicante, and then held him captive for four days in a house in the same town.

The kidnappers caused him knife wounds and left him to die of hunger and thirst, the Civil Guard said, adding that the victim managed to escape his tormentors after they transferred him to El Campello, a town neighboring San Juan in Alicante, where he filed a complaint. Only 48 hours later, the judicial police officers of San Juan from the Alicante command of the Guardia Civil located the two houses used by the kidnappers in Callosa de Segura and El Campello.

Searches were carried out there and a 55-year-old Italian woman was arrested for her alleged involvement in the facts. In collaboration with the Italian agents of the secure information exchange network of Europol (SIENA), they were able to determine the reasons for the kidnapping and identify the sponsor and leader of the gang. It was actually a settling of scores between drug trafficking networks for the theft of one’s cargo by the other.

According to the Civil Guard, the gang leader is a 54-year-old Italian citizen. He was arrested on August 1 in Valencia and placed in custody. The other two, Spaniards aged 31 and 34, were arrested respectively on December 12 and 20 in Mijas and Marbella and placed in custody. The four detainees, depending on the degree of participation, have been accused of the alleged crimes of kidnapping, injury and belonging to a criminal organization.