A major hashish smuggling gang has been dismantled in Cadiz after the Guardia Civil seized almost a tonne of the drug on a popular tourist beach.
Police seized a total of 915kg of hashish, a stolen 4×4 and the inflatable boat used to bring the shipment ashore.
The arrests were made in the early hours of Friday, July 24, in Carboneros, Chiclana, an area popular with tourists.
The operation began at around 4am, when officers monitoring Spain’s Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE) detected a boat moving suspiciously through the tidal channels around Chiclana.
Suspecting a drug landing was underway, the Guardia Civil mobilised specialist officers from the Citizen Security Unit (USECIC), alongside local patrols.
Officers quickly located the unloading site, where they caught members of the gang in the act of transferring sacks of hashish from the inflatable boat into a waiting off-road vehicle.
Two suspects were arrested at the scene, while the remaining two fled before being tracked down in a follow-up search involving organised crime and anti-drugs officers.
In total, officers seized 23 sacks containing 915kg of hashish, together with the inflatable boat used in the smuggling operation and a stolen 4×4 believed to have been intended to transport the drugs inland.
The suspects and the seized items were taken to Guardia Civil headquarters in Cadiz, where the drugs were officially weighed before the four men were placed at the disposal of the courts.
According to estimates cited by local media, a kilogram of hashish is currently worth around €2,000 once it reaches southern Spain from Morocco, meaning the seized shipment would have had a potential street value of around €1.8million before being transported further into Europe, where prices typically increase even more.
