The arrest of one of the major financiers of the drug worldwide it was a coincidence. The National Police had been behind the self-proclaimed «Dubai banking»a group of big bosses and financiers from important Arab families who, from the city that named them, have coordinated most of the large entries of narcotics – mainly cocaine – into Europe through Spain, until in the first months of this year the agents managed to hunt down the main ringleaders. A piece of the house of cards was missing, which ended up falling at Malaga airport on July 23.
Cristóbal Villaverde has his habitual residence in Colombia, according to the summary to which this newspaper has had access, although he has passports from several countries, so his exact location was quite complicated. The Police received a tip that placed him in an urbanization on the Costa del Sol visiting relatives in the middle of summer. When on July 23 he reserved a VTC vehicle to take him to the airport, investigators were already following him up. When he headed to the Malaga departure terminal, the agents did not hesitate to arrest him and transfer him to the Provincial Police Station in the capital. He had with him six mobile phones, more than 8,000 euros in cash and 1,400 US dollars.
The investigation places Villaverde as a key player in “Dubai banking”, one of its largest financiers. “In Colombia he is a millionaire, he has more than 100 million clean,” summarizes one of the researchers. The Police have managed to arrest several of the top bosses of world drug trafficking in this investigation, which is directed by Central Court number 2 of the National Court. All of them operated in Spain. The leader, the person who moves the most drugs in the Old Continent, is Alejandro Vega Salgado, alias “El Tigre”, who is still wanted and captured. The main novelty of “Operation Drahab” is that the agents have managed to detect and dismantle the financing route for the largest shipments of international cocaine. The members of the group operated in a clandestine economic circuit, a kind of parallel financial system based on trust that allows the bosses to move enormous amounts of money without being detected. Sometimes even a millionaire. A “banking in B” that they named “Dubai Banking”.
The investigation has reached this point after the capture of the Nehir ship off the coast of Gijón in February 2021. It had 1,835 kilos on board, but the logistics team managed to get rid of another 1,650. In total about 3,500 kilos. From these investigations, together with the conversations of criminal organizations from around the world obtained by France years ago through the Sky-ECC and EncroChat applications, the police have managed to find this group, to which they give a great capacity for action and financing throughout the planet.
At the top, the Police and the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office place the aforementioned “Tigre”, Carlos Humberto Arango, known as “Burger King”, David Pericles, whom they place as “Spartan”, and Jonas Falk, “the Swedish Pablo Escobar.” Below would be the financiers, people who handle a huge volume of cash, who are connected to each other and who work under the premise of mutual trust. The bosses gave the money to one of these “brokers” who, upon receiving it, gave the order to another colleague, located thousands of kilometers away, to release the same amount in cash to a fourth member of the organization. Thus they evaded any financial control. Dubai, which is a “golden cage” for criminal organizations according to a police source, favors these deals. For example, it is possible to buy a mansion worth several million euros by handing over “cash.”
This point in the framework is where Cristóbal Villaverde entered. According to police reports, under the nickname “Captain Jack” in the encrypted applications, he acted as “a recruiter of large clients for Dubai Banking, accounting for the loans and debts of these clients with the organization, reporting directly to the right hand” of one of the bosses.
But his work was not limited to providing cash to drug traffickers. It also supported the creation of money laundering structures, with the creation of front companies for “El Tigre” and other bosses, or the management of “large nodes of crypto assets that allow the concealment or operations” used by this group of international criminals “to launder the money obtained by its own members.” In addition, Villaverde managed “manager checks”, a system that operates in the United Arab Emirates through which drug traffickers “can obtain in a short period of time the transformation of their illicit money or financing with the support of legal banks, for the acquisition of assets such as real estate, high-end vehicles or luxury products,” the Police point out in one of their reports.
The operation represents a police milestone, since it is the first time that a member of the self-proclaimed “Dubai Bank” has been arrested in Spain. In addition, there are 21 other detainees internationally and another 14 in Spain. They are accused of criminal organization, drug trafficking and money laundering. 19 international arrest warrants have been issued, of which seven have already been executed thanks to the collaboration of Interpol. The agents have seized 39,000 euros in cash, high-end vehicles, watches, jewelry and luxury bags. 121 bank accounts with 2.3 million euros and 48 properties valued at more than 14 have been blocked.