Spain accuses major drug baron of planning comeback

MADRID: Since his conditional release from prison in 2016, Sito Minanco had reportedly ditched his past as one of Spain´s most powerful drug barons to work as a parking attendant.

But this week, the 62-year-old, whose real name is Jose Ramon Prado Bugallo, was re-arrested on suspicion of trying to impose himself once again in the lucrative cocaine trade, along with 20 alleged members of his suspected network in a nationwide sting.

Minanco is from Galicia, a region in Spain´s northwest whose rugged coastline has proved ideal for trafficking with narrow waterways that wind in-land, once at the forefront of the illegal drug trade.

He was arrested on Monday in the southern city of Algeciras, where he worked as a parking attendant but lived in a villa with a pool.

His alleged right-hand man Enrique Garcia Arango, a Colombian, was also held, along with the son-in-law of a major Galician hashish trafficker. On Friday, police announced close to five tonnes of drugs had been seized in the operation.