spanish police
© Policía Nacional
The suspected leader of one of Spain's largest drug cartels has been arrested after turning himself in just weeks after he appeared to taunt police by appearing in a music video.

Francisco Tejón is the alleged head of the 'Castañas' cartel, in charge of a €30 million hashish empire between Morocco and Spain via the Strait of Gibraltar. He had been pursued by authorities since July 2016.

Tejón, aka "Isco," 39, turned himself in to authorities Wednesday shortly after appearing in a video for the song 'Candela' by Cuban reggaeton artist Clase A at the beginning of October. In the video, Isco appears drinking champagne alongside scantily clad women, driving a Bentley and dancing around a swimming pool. The video was uploaded at the beginning of October but has since been taken down.

It "shows the lack of respect (drug traffickers) have for the security forces," Jose Encinas of the AUGC Guardia Civil association told AFP.

Some 30 Castañas gang members were arrested in April 2017 as part of Operation Ronal, after which the Tejón brothers went underground. Isco's younger brother Antonio was arrested on June 7 in a major police operation involving some 100 officers in the southern town of La Línea de la Concepción.

Drug traffickers operate with a high degree of impunity in the town as the area has been hit particularly hard by Spain's economic crisis. Unemployment is as high as 80 percent in many neighborhoods.

An estimated 3,000 of approximately 64,000 inhabitants are suspected of involvement in the drug-trafficking trade,while attacks on police officers have become commonplace, El País reports.

La Linea is believed to be the entry point for roughly 40 percent of the drugs smuggled into Spain from Morocco's northern coast, just 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) away. In 2017, police seized145,372kg (320,500lb) of hashish in the region and 11,785kg (25,981lb) of cocaine.