MADRID, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Spanish police arrested on Wednesday one of the country's oldest and most infamous drug trafficker Manuel Charlin, local media reported.

Spanish police confirmed to Xinhua that the arrest was made in a major raid related to a stash of drugs, in the northwestern region of Galicia.

Charlin's son and 16 others were also arrested in the operation.

Charlin is widely believed to have established a major drug trafficking network between Latin America in Europe.

Investigation resulted in the arrests of other well-known Spanish drug traffickers based in Galicia.

Decades ago, this region was the gateway of South American drugs to Europe.

The 86-year old baron and his son Melchor led the so-called "Clan de los Charlines", a group that became known for being the pioneers to contact Colombian cartels in the 1980s to establish a cocaine trafficking network from Latin America to Galicia.

The Charlin clan earned millions of dollars with drug trafficking, followed by many others at that time in Galicia.

Charlin had spent 20 years behind bars after being found guilty of bringing large amounts of cocaine from Colombia to Spain. He was freed in 2010.