Operación Dragón was not a lucky break. It was a two-year infiltration.
The operation dismantled the "Galician connection." The heads of the Charlines clan were sentenced to over 18 years in prison. The Punta Candieira was seized and later used by the Spanish government as a training ship for anti-drug officers. Operacion Dragon
Today, while smaller clans still operate, Operación Dragón broke the back of the industrial-scale "fishing" model. It forced the cartels to shift their routes north toward the Netherlands and Belgium. However, the case remains a landmark in European criminology: a rare example of law enforcement destroying a logistical network without firing a single shot, using patience, technology, and the oldest weapon in the book—an informant who wanted a reduced sentence. Operación Dragón was not a lucky break
On a foggy November morning in 2005, a commercial fishing trawler named Punta Candieira slipped into the port of Vigo, Spain. To the dockworkers, it was just another vessel returning from a long, fruitless haul in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The crew looked exhausted; the nets were clean. But the Spanish Civil Guard had been waiting for this ship for six months. The Punta Candieira was seized and later used
Prologue: The Hero’s Return