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Spain arrested the former top law enforcement officer in charge of the unit investigating fraud and corruption after discovering around $22 million hidden in the walls of his house, the Guardian reported this week.

Óscar Sánchez Gil, the former head of the fraud and anti-money laundering division of Spain’s national police force, was arrested last week along with 15 other people, including his girlfriend, also a police officer in the Madrid region.

During the raid on his home, police found the cash hidden in the walls and ceilings of the couple’s home near the Spanish capital.

Officers also found more than $1 million in his office.

The couple has been charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and membership of a criminal organization and have been jailed until trial.

Spanish media said the arrests were linked to the seizure last month of 13 tons of cocaine that arrived in the southern port of Algeciras from Ecuador, the largest-ever haul of cocaine in Spain and “one of the largest seizures in the world.”

Police operations uncovered links between the importer of the drugs and Sánchez Gil.

He was already under suspicion by his colleagues who had tapped his phone, the newspaper El Mundo reported. He is suspected of having worked for the drug traffickers for “at least five years,” providing information on the surveillance of containers in Spanish ports, which enabled them to avoid checks, Agence France-Presse wrote.

Spain is a main entry point for drugs into Europe because of its close ties with former colonies in Latin America such as major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru, and its proximity to Morocco, a top cannabis producer.

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