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Police bust drug smugglers on speedboats to Spain

Spanish police have arrested a drug gang of 100 members, accused of bringing narcotics from Morocco to Spain, authorities stated on Saturday.

Police bust drug smugglers on speedboats to Spain
Photo: Matthaeus/Unsplash

The Spanish Civil Guard has dismantled a network that distributes marijuana throughout Europe, the Civil Guard announced in a statement.

In the drugs bust, Spanish police seized more than five tonnes of hashish (resin) and 230 kilos of marijuana (weed).

During the raids across southern Spain and France, Spanish authorities discovered that the gang, known as Monparlet, transported the drugs using the Guadalquivir river, then hid the drugs in fruit trucks to take them to France.

Footage of drugs being smuggled from Morocco to Spain, say Spanish police. Photo: Spanish Civil Guard

“One branch of the organisation launched the boats on the Guadalquivir river, another sent the drugs to Europe in trucks from a warehouse located in Dos Hermanas and a third one refuelled the boats from marinas located between La Línea and Manilva,” the Civil Guard statement added.

The drug ring was also found to supply other criminal organisations with boats, fuel, food and crews.

In the raids, police seized a taser gun, as well as five vehicles, including two trucks, navigation systems, computer and communication equipment.

READ ALSO: Spanish police make ‘biggest ever haul of synthetic drugs’

Agents found out that the drug ring was also launching boats between the Sevillian towns of Isla Mayor and Puebla del Río, an area of marshland and therefore difficult to access from land.

Police described the illegal organisation as a “powerful infrastructure” in which they carried out drug runs “all along the coasts of Andalusia”.

Drugs were disguised in fruit trucks to facilitate transport through Spain. Photo: Spanish Civil Guard

In addition, authorities discovered several warehouses on the outskirts of Seville, which served as a boat repair and maintenance station, ensuring boats were always ready to go.

With the support of French Customs, 105 kilograms of marijuana were seized in Dax. In Spain, two more trucks were seized: one in Badajoz, where they found 300 kilos of hashish and police confiscated a further 125 kilos of marijuana in Irun (Guipuzcoa).

READ ALSO: ‘Europe’s marijuana orchard’: How Spain is feeding the continent’s drug habit

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CRIME

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel’s crystal meth

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized 1,800 kilos of crystal meth that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country's "biggest-ever seizure" of the narcotic.

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel's crystal meth

Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.

“This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organised crime unit, told reporters.

“Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.

READ ALSO: What are the penalties for drug possession in Spain?

He did not give his name but indicated the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain then distributing them within Europe.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups whose influence remains strong despite the arrest of its founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his son.

Both have been extradited to and jailed in the United States.

During the operation, police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and cash.

But police believe it was a one-off trafficking operation and that “Mexican organisations are not permanently based” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.

“These organisations send a trusted person who carries out the operation in line with their interests” and once that is over, he goes back home, he explained.

The seized narcotics had been due to be shipped to central Europe.

Although Spain is one of the main drug gateways to Europe, seizures of synthetic narcotics are uncommon as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain’s Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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