A group of drug traffickers have been caught with more than a tonne of hashish after unloading the cargo onto a Marbella beach.
The Guardia Civil spotted a high-powered speed boat around 13 nautical miles off the Costa del Sol in the early hours of Thursday.
A second, smaller vessel was seen pulling up alongside the so-called narcolancha to provide it with fuel.
They then went their separate ways, police said, with the drugs being ferried to the shores of Marbella.
Meanwhile, the refuelling vessel headed to Fuengirola, where it was intercepted at the town’s port with five containers of gasoline.
The Guardia Civil tracked down the van suspected of transporting the drugs from the Marbella beach and ordered it to pull over.
Inside the vehicle they found 26 bales of hashish each weighing around 40kg, leading to two arrests.
The haul had a combined weight of 1,124kg.
The smaller boat’s skipper was also arrested in Fuengirola.
All three are suspected of offences against public health – the legal classification commonly applied to drug trafficking – as well as document forgery offences.
They have since been placed before the relevant judicial authority.
In addition to the hashish, officers seized the recreational boat and the van allegedly used to transport the drugs.
A car fitted with false number plates, which belonged to one of those arrested, was also confiscated.
The operation involved officers from the Guardia Civil’s Mijas main post, the Torremolinos Fiscal and Borders Patrol, the Command’s Citizen Security Unit (USECIC) and the Mijas Judicial Police team.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
