The Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the National Police, has intercepted a pleasure boat with 680 kilos of hashish in Almería. The drug had been loaded on the Moroccan coast and it was hidden inside 30 pouches of gasoline.
It is a investigation what has been in force since 2019. From that same year the researchers were aware of the presence of a drug trafficking organization based on the Costa del Sol and made up of individuals of Franco-Moroccan origin. The group was dedicated to transporting hashish from Morocco to the Malaga coast using pleasure boats. The loaded drug was camouflaged in gasoline cans in order to avoid its seizure in the event that any patrol of the State Forces and Security carried out the pertinent inspection on the high seas.
The research has been carried out in 3 different phases:
Lthe first phase of the investigation was developed during the October month of the year 2020 when investigators spotted a suspicious vessel four miles downto Marbella area. After noticing the presence of the patrol boats, they began their flight towards Nagüeles beach (Marbella) while the occupants threw them into the sea various bottles of gasoline. Once on the shore, the boat was stranded and two suspects fled on foot. The Agents managed to recover the twelve flasks thrown into the sea within which they were hidden 222 kilos of hashish.
TO end of that same year the second phase was carried out, in which the Customs of the Tax Agency, proceeded to boarding another vessel that carried inside 31 carafes of gasoline inside which 621 kilos of hashish were hidden, which is why the investigators proceeded to arrest those involved. One of the pilots carried in his belongings a paper with geographic coordinatesIn the same way, another of the detainees who was on land also carried among his belongings a paper with similar characteristics, for which the investigators were able to verify that the organization planned to carry out some transshipment of the drug to another vessel that was located in the geographical coordinates that both detainees had in their possession.
The last phase took place at end of August when the agents located the aforementioned vessel heading for Moroccan waters. Once there, he remains waiting and at the end of the night he restarts his march again. to the port of Almerimar (Almería). After being intercepted, the investigators proceeded to search and located in its interior 680 kilos of hashish hidden inside 30 pouches of gasoline, as well as 1,415 euros in cash. Likewise, its two crew members, a man of British origin and another of Dutch origin, were arrested.