Massive drug smuggling ring smashed in joint operation

IN A combined operation between the Guardia Civil and National Police, 24 people involved in the smuggling of drugs from Morocco to Spain and then on to Italy have been arrested together with the seizure of three tons of hashish.

The investigation began in March of this year when some 1,368 kilos of hashish were discovered on a number of beaches in the provinces of Cadiz and Malaga and following these discoveries, a number of people were arrested.

Interviews with those detailed revealed to the officers that a number of Italian, Moroccan and Spanish individuals were involved in a massive smuggling operation which brought drugs from Morocco which were then hidden in a number of private houses across the Costa del sol and Campo de Gibraltar from where they were transferred to a number of different vehicles which had false floors so that the drugs could be moved around Europe.

Once the investigations started o gain momentum, the smugglers organisation began to tumble like a house of cards as one van containing 500 kilos of hash was stopped on the A7 in Marbella, another was stopped in Granada, a third in Motril which was en route to Murcia and a fourth, a tanker, in Castellon.

Apart from those arrested who are being charged with belonging to a criminal organisation, crimes against public health and driving with false number plates and the seizure of the drugs, a total of 11 vehicles of different types together with cash and documents have been confiscated as evidence.