A fleet of high-tech drones which flew drugs from Africa to Spain in the dead of night has been seized by police.
Some 18 long-range drones, which cost €80,000 each, were unearthed during Operation Ruche, led by the Guardia Civil with assistance from the Moroccan Gendarmerie and Europol.
The year-long investigation led to the arrest of nine people, consisting of Latvian, Russian and Ukrainian nationals, as well as Spaniards.
Of the 18 drones seized, eight were operational while 10 were being prepared for drug runs. Authorities also seized €320,000 in cash and 210kg of hashish during five simultaneous raids.
At a press conference on Wednesday at the Guardia Civil Command in Algeciras, the Government Delegate in Andalucia, Pedro Fernandez, and Brigadier General Luis Ortega, Commander of the Algeciras Command, hailed the results as an ‘unprecedented blow’ to the use of new technologies by organised drug traffickers.
They were joined by Lieutenant Manuel Valenzuela, head of the Judicial Police, and a representative of the Moroccan Gendarmerie, who requested anonymity.
Several plain-clothed Guardia Civil officers who took part in the operation were also present.
The network’s drones, each worth around €80,000, had a flight range of 200km and could remain airborne for more than two hours.
Although purchased online from China, the traffickers modified them with high-precision equipment in clandestine workshops in Alcala de los Gazules (Cadiz), police said.
The adapted drones were able to take off from the town, fly across the Strait of Gibraltar, collect packages of hashish in northern Morocco, and drop them back into Spain between Tarifa and Vejer de la Frontera, before returning to base.
Because much of each round trip was made without carrying drugs, the flights were difficult to detect and complicated the investigation, as the operators in Spain were technically only committing an administrative infraction during the outbound leg.
All flights were carried out at night, weather permitting, with operations often continuing until dawn.
The drones were equipped with GPS guidance systems and visual and acoustic beacons, enabling ground crews using night-vision goggles to quickly locate and retrieve the hashish bundles.
The aircraft themselves were hidden in kitesurfing bags to avoid arousing suspicion.
To store the drugs after recovery, the traffickers rented rural houses for short periods – typically two or three days – frequently changing locations to stay ahead of investigators.
The first major interception came on October 22 this year, when officers stopped a vehicle carrying 57.2kg of hashish that had been dropped in Spain by a drone.
The driver tried to flee the checkpoint, crashing and injuring several officers, one of whom required surgery.
The nine detainees have been placed at the disposal of Court of Instruction No. 4 of Algeciras, with the Campo de Gibraltar Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office overseeing the case.
During his remarks, Pedro Fernandez praised the ‘trained, dedicated and committed’ efforts of Guardia Civil agents across Andalucía, stressing that the success of Operation Ruche was also due to close cooperation with Europol and the Moroccan Gendarmerie.
He said the anti-drug plan, which covers six of Andalucia’s eight provinces, has led to great progress this year, including 2,017 arrests, 136 tonnes of seized narcotics, 327 vehicles, 242 boats, and more than 600,000 litres of fuel confiscated.
