Joint operation between the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard

• The seized drugs are valued at more than seven million euros.

• It was found hidden inside a container with about 520 bags of sugar.

May 26, 2022.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency in Las Palmas, in coordination with the Civil Guard of the Tax Detachment of the port of La Luz, intervened on May 23 a container from Brazil with more than 500 sacks of white crystal sugar, in which ten packages contained cocaine.

Monitoring and surveillance

As a result of the joint monitoring and surveillance carried out by both the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard in the port facilities, the corresponding documentary analysis was carried out on a container that showed discrepancies with respect to the declared merchandise, originating from the port of Santos (Brazil) and which was planned to continue its destination towards the African continent after carrying out the transshipment in the port of Gran Canaria.

The first clues found by the Civil Guard agents from the Fiscal and Border Section led to a more exhaustive inspection together with members of Customs Surveillance of the merchandise in the container at the Border Inspection Center (CIF), removing numerous sacks of sugar from its interior until a total of ten sacks were located that had irregular shapes compared to the rest of the cargo. This discovery aroused certain suspicions among the acting agents, so they proceeded to separate them and open them.

Analysis of the substance

Once the substance was extracted from the bags, the appropriate checks were carried out and they were taken to the Civil Guard facilities in Puerto de la Luz, taking a small sample from each bag to undergo a drug test, where ten bags of sugar containing a white, compact substance distributed in 200 packages tested positive for cocaine.

This intervention is a major blow to international organised crime that uses this type of modus operandi, thus preventing the introduction of this substance into the illicit market, which, according to the tables established by the National Central Narcotics Office, would have reached an estimated value of more than 7,600,000 euros.

For all these reasons, the corresponding police proceedings were carried out by the Fiscal Analysis and Investigation Unit, which were placed at the disposal of the Court of Instruction on Duty of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria together with the seized substance.