Victoria

The Civil Guard, recently raided the mansion where a UK major drug lord lived, after being investigated several times since 2006 and was linked to a stash of 210 kilos of cocaine in 2011.
He is considered by Europol as one of the major drug kingpins from the UK and places him among the top ten in Europe. Briton Robert Dawes, 44, was arrested recently by the Civil Guard in Benalmadena, a town where his family had settled. Agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) had been recording throughout the day the mansion where he lived.

Robert Dawes was subject to a European arrest warrant pursuant to a letter issued by the French authorities. He is well known to the agents of the UCO Civil Guard, who since 2006 have investigated him several times for activities related to drug trafficking and have made important links with caches of hashish, cocaine and heroin. During ‘Operation Halbert ‘which was developed in 2007, agents of the Civil Guard identified Dawes as the alleged leader of an integrated British organisation that was dedicated to introducing large amounts of drugs into Europe.

According to the Civil Guard, the alleged British kingpin learned of the arrest of some of his fellow gang members and fled the country, taking refuge in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), from where he allegedly continued to direct this criminal network operating in Spain, UK and other countries in the European Union.
Dawes managed to escape, but police arrested four alleged gang members when they intercepted a shipment of 210 kilos of cocaine. In the UK, the cache would have reached over 10 million euros.
In subsequent operations they managed to dismantle the rest of the organisation by detaining 22 people, including eight in Spain, nine in England and four in Belgium. The information was passed to agents in the Arab Emirates, where Dawes was stopped in June 2008 for crimes related to money laundering. In April 2011 he was extradited to Spain and imprisoned in Madrid in Soto del Real. According to the newspaper The Guardian, the alleged leader of the network had to be released because the British authorities “did not respond for months” to the information requirements of the Spanish courts.
The Madrid Court revoked the indictment and stopped the case pending the evidence demanded from the rogatory committees.
In the various operations against the organisation, supposedly captained by Dawes, were involved in, apart from the 210 kilos of cocaine, some 5,700 kilos of hashish, 100 kilos of heroin, four guns, 100,000 euros in cash and confiscated properties valued at six million euros, according to the Civil Guard.

To transport drugs from one country to another, the band camouflaged caches inside fire extinguishers located in the truck cabs or in wood or in loaded pallets of boxes previously isolated to disguise their scent.
As recorded in the statement issued in 2011 by the Civil Guard, this served as the trigger of the extradition of Robert Dawes to Spain.