Balkan cartel: drug trafficking group that laundered money through football was disbanded

Shock in the world of football. The Balkan Cartel was dismantled after a great function of the police of Germany, Colombia, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia through Operation Musala that began three years ago. The group that had the largest cocaine distribution network in Europe used the sale of real estate and transfers of soccer players to launder money.

The drug trafficking organization was largely made up of individuals from Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro. In the development of the police operation that began three years earlier, 61 people were arrested, in addition to seizing four tons of cocaine and 600 thousand euros, according to the head of the Central Narcotics Brigade of the Anti-Drug Unit. and Organized Crime (UDYCO).

Antonio Martínez Duarte, head of UDYCO indicated that cartel money was laundered through football from Colombia or Dubai. “One of the ways to whitewash it later is soccer, a business that moves so much money that it is extremely difficult to keep track of it. Although not impossible “the official told El Mundo.

“We are aware, thanks to the police collaboration with Colombia, that part of the profits obtained through the trafficking of cocaine between that country and the Balkan cartel, the most important in Europe, have been dedicated to the payment of commissions on transfers of football players. These are, on the one hand, commissions paid at origin to representatives and, on the other, to intermediaries in the countries of arrival. South American footballers have arrived in Eastern European countries whose signings are tainted by money obtained by bringing cocaine on sailboats or similar vessels that pass through Spain. They are not top-level players, but they are promises in some cases “, Duarte added.

Although almost no names of footballers related to the event have been confirmed, one of those involved was confirmed. Roberto José, a former soccer player who played in Second Division B, who had a kilo of cocaine confiscated in Valencia.