Spanish cops find 60 kilos of high-purity cocaine hidden in mechanical bulls

It took officers four days to figure out where the drugs had been hidden in the high-voltage battery cells together with sulphuric acid and with an industrial seal.

Nine people have been arrested, four of them of Colombians following an investigation targeting a Madrid-based criminal network.

The drugs had been shipped by sea through the ports at Barcelona and Rotterdam.

The network had been under investigation since 2017, but there was a breakthrough last September when US Drug Enforcement Agency passed on information to their Spanish colleagues.

According to police statement today, a major operation against the gang included surveillance, identifying front companies used by the gang and their distribution network throughout Spain.

At the end of February a truck moving mechanical bulls to an industrial warehouse was identified by investigators.

Specialist officers then took four days to find the 32 packages of cocaine which had been carefully concealed.

In follow-up arrests another vehicle was found to have a hidden compartment in the dashboard in which two and half kilos of cocaine were also found.