Three detainees for selling weapons of war they tested in an underground shooting gallery | Spain

Two shootings, one in Puente Genil (Córdoba) in the last quarter of 2023 and another in Jaén in mid -2024, launched two separate police investigations. That of Puente Genil, by the Civil Guard; Jaén’s, by the National Police. The investigations joined in October 2024, when the researchers reached a common link, the vendors and the point of sale of the weapons involved in those shootings. The follow -up to some suspects led the agents to the vicinity of Molino Nuevo Street, in the northern part of Granada Capital, the center of the production of marijuana in the city and especially conflicting area. There they found a sham and some lots of nearby land. The chabola hidden, three levels below the surface level, a shooting gallery, the first of this type found in Spain. The lots of land served as a warehouse to hide perfectly packed and arranged for use the firearms that this criminal group sold throughout Andalusia.

The security forces, in what in the end became a joint operation that at the moment has covered the provinces of Granada, Córdoba and Jaén, have arrested three people, as reported in a press appearance on Wednesday the Government delegate in Andalusia, Pedro Fernández. In this phase of the investigation, which is not closed, the three detainees are accused of alleged crimes of illicit possession of weapons, deposit of weapons of war, crime against public health and belonging to criminal organization.

Fernández has commented that the shooting gallery, about seven meters long and the one that was accessed by the shack going down three floors, served as a place of evidence of the weapons that the criminals sold mainly to groups of drug traffickers. The construction was rudimentary, a kind of hall to several meters under the ground. The depth and a mattress that researchers have found allowed the noise of the shooting not to reach the surface. The photos of the place show the bottom of the gallery with numerous holes of those shots.

Drug traffickers got in touch with arms vendors – war of them war – through secure mobile messaging applications. Once the weapons suppliers verified that the requests were serious, they sent test videos of those weapons in the clandestine shooting gallery. Sometimes, the government delegate commented, buyers went to Granada to prove the quality of weapons in that gallery. The researchers do not know how long this band was operating.

The offer they made to their buyers, judging by what was intervened by the agents, was broad: three assault rifles, a subfusil, six short weapons, a semi -automatic shotgun, a bulletproof vest, a subfusil gun conversion kit, two simulated guns, a gun cannon, a simulated grenade, a simulated grenade Assault, subfusile rifle loaders and high capacity gun, as well as abundant metal and non -metallic cartridge. In addition, more than 60,000 euros in metallic and dismantled two interior marijuana plantations have been intervened.

Fernández, who has been accompanied by the heads of the National Police of Jaén and Granada, and on the Civil Guard of Córdoba and Granada, wanted to give an idea of ​​the prices of the weapons of these merchants: “A gun was around 6,000 or 7,000 euros, for example, and an assault rifle was sold for between 10,000 and 11,000 euros”. The drug traffickers bought the weapons, he said, to defend themselves and to fight with other bands.

The operation has required up to 11 entries in homes in the province of Granada, five in the capital, five in Loja and one more in Moraleda de Zafayona. Of the three detainees, two are currently in prison and one remains investigated although he has been released.

Colonel Ramón Clemente, head of the Civil Guard Command in Córdoba, explained that the operation is still open and that there are still relevant people of this criminal group to stop. As he commented, « when we find cases in which there are firearms involved, we do not stop until we find them, intervene them and find where and who are coming. » This research, affecting drug trafficking, in this case of marijuana, is framed in the Special Security Plan for the Gibraltar field that, despite the name, affects six of the eight provinces of Andalusia (Cádiz, Málaga, Huelva, Almería, Granada and Seville).

Pedro Fernández has taken advantage of the appearance to take stock of this special plan. Since 2018 until December 31, 2024, the work against drug trafficking has resulted in 34,275 operations, 25,818 arrested or investigated, 1,932 tons of drugs seized, 6,852 seized land vehicles, 1,720 maritime and 14 air, and 2,607 weapons.