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CRIME

Spanish police bust helicopter drug ring

Spanish police on Sunday said they busted a drug ring suspected of using helicopters to smuggle France-bound hashish and marijuana from Morocco to Spain.

Published: 9 January 2022 19:11 CET
A local police car patrols the streets in a Spanish town.
Spain's proximity to hashish producer Morocco has made it a key entry point for drugs bound for Europe. ANDER GILLENEA / AFP

Officers arrested 11 people and are seeking another 11 suspects in France, Spanish police said in a statement.

Police seized 112 kilograms (247 pounds) of marijuana, 2.4 tonnes of hashish, three helicopters, four guns and ammunition with support from French police and EU crime agency Europol.

The ring is believed to have used helicopters to ferry drugs from Morocco to southern Spain and then to France in trucks and a tour bus with fake licence plates.

Spain’s proximity to Morocco — a major hashish producer — has made it a key entry point for drugs bound for Europe.

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CRIME

Dutch woman arrested over shooting of right-wing Spanish politician

A Dutch woman was arrested in the Netherlands in relation to an attack on a right-wing Spanish politician who was shot in Madrid, Spanish police said on Tuesday.

Published: 1 May 2024 08:18 CEST
Dutch woman arrested over shooting of right-wing Spanish politician

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a founder of Spain’s far-right Vox party, was shot in the face in broad daylight near his home in the upscale Salamanca neighbourhood on November 9 by a motorcycle passenger.

Long a supporter of the Iranian opposition, the 78-year-old Vidal-Quadras has accused the Iranian regime of involvement in the shooting.

Four people had already been arrested as part of the investigation into the shooting, but the suspected gunman — a French national of Tunisian origin with several previous convictions in France — remains at large.

“A woman was arrested in Holland for her alleged participation in the financing and preparation of the attack on Vidal-Quadras,” the national police said in a brief statement.

Police said she was detained after Spain issued a European arrest warrant.

Vidal-Quadras was a member and then vice-president of the European Parliament between 1994 and 2014.

He was also a former head of the centre-right People’s Party in Catalonia.

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