Key Arrest Exposes Ties Between European ’Mocro Maffia’ and Medellin Cartel

The drug trafficker was arrested on Thursday at his home, "a luxury villa in the Antioquia region" in Colombia, as part of a joint operation carried out by the Spanish and Colombian police, the Spanish police said in a statement on Saturday. The defendant was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities for drug trafficking.

According to the Colombian press, the defendant’s name is Julio Andrés Murillo Figueroa, alias H-1 or El Zar ("the Tsar"), considered the main cocaine distributor for Jonas Sture Falk, known as the "Swedish Pablo Escobar". He was responsible for supplying cocaine to criminal organizations in Europe and would be "responsible for the cartel’s (Medellin) operations in Europe and the contact of this cartel with the criminal organizations ’Ndrangheta and Mocro Maffia’", the Spanish police said in their note.

The ’Ndrangheta is the Calabrian mafia (Italy) and the Mocro Maffia, the Moroccan mafia specialized in cocaine trafficking and organized crime in Belgium and the Netherlands. Spain’s geographical position makes it a hub for cocaine trafficking in Europe. Last February, some 8 tons of cocaine from Suriname were seized in Spain. Similarly, 9.5 tons of this drug arriving from Ecuador were seized there in August 2023.