1,200 kilos of hashish hidden in large capacity plastic drums filled with fine sand from construction mortar. This is the method used by an organization dedicated to international drug trafficking which was dismantled in the city of Malaga, Marbella and in Elche (Alicante).
The operation was developed by the National Police, in collaboration with the British NCA. Agents seized 1,200 kilos of hashish and arrested seven British citizens, members of the organization, as indicated in a press release.
The registrations were made in a Elche Estate, which the organization used as a “daycare” – where the narcotic substance was located – and in three houses in Marbella and Fuengirola, where “samples” of hashish bearing the same anagrams as the drugs found on board the ship were seized.
The investigation began last April, when officers learned that a group of citizens of British origin They are allegedly engaged in international drug trafficking, for which they use large trucks.
In May, researchers They located one of the vehicles used by this group to transport drugs and verified that it was registered in the name of the company of those arrested.
After this discovery, officers found a farm in Elche that the organization would use as a daycare to hide the narcotic substance, simulating legal activity, because inside was a large quantity of civil engineering equipment.
At this location, it was possible to verify that there was a continuous transfer of input and output of building materials stacked on pallets such as paving stones, drums, polyethylene tubes or sandbags.
Intense activity
Investigators highlighted “intense activity” by members of the organization inside the ship and detected that they could be planning the introduction of a large shipment of narcotic substances to Spain.
For this reason, an operation was launched to search the ship in which the agents were located 1,200 kilos of hashish and four members of the organization were arrested. They found some of the drugs arranged in burlap bundles and smaller bundles.
The rest of the narcotic substance was hidden in large capacity plastic drumsstacked on pallets that investigators filled with fine sand from construction mortar to transport inside trucks. In addition to the drug, two frequency inhibitors were involved in the registry.
Along with the practice of registering the ship in the province of Alicante, other people were arrested. three investigated in the towns of Marbella and Fuengirola.
An organization dedicated to drug trafficking dismantled in Malaga: 1,200 kilos of hashish hidden in barrels of sand
In these places, three home searches in which various quantities of hashish arranged in tablets, called “samples”, were seized, some of them bearing the same anagrams as those found in the Elche farm.
Furthermore, more than 63,000 euros in cash, five passenger vehicles and a heavy truck, electronic devices such as a frequency detector, a beacon, two computers, cell phones, a GPS navigator and four walkie-talkie type transmission equipment.
In addition to the money seized, there was Blocking of bank accounts worth more than 40,000 euros. All the detainees were placed in temporary prison.
Fight against criminal networks
As detailed, this operation was carried out with financing instruments from the European Union. To achieve these objectives, the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission (DG HOME), in collaboration with the EU agencies and specific EU funds, such as the Internal Security Funds (ISF), support Member States in combating criminal threats through coordinated operations aimed at dismantling criminal networks and their business models.
The interventions carried out as part of this program were co-financed by the European Unionas part of the support provided to Member States to combat criminal networks which pose the most significant threats to the security of EU citizens and the Union as a whole.
