A joint operation by the Tax Agency and the Guardia Civil

• 12 people arrested during drug reception in an industrial estate in the Murcia town of Ceutí

February 6, 2023.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard, within the framework of operation 'Inertia', have seized 560 kilos of hashish hidden in a 40-foot container originating in the port of La Luz in Las Palmas and destined for an industrial estate in the town of Ceutí, Murcia. Within the framework of this operation called 'Inercia', 12 people, aged between 18 and 52, were arrested after being caught by the operatives of both bodies while receiving the drugs.

As a result of surveillance, monitoring and an intense risk analysis by Customs Surveillance officials and the UDAIF of the Civil Guard at the Puerto de la Luz in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, investigators determined at the end of last November that a shipment of some 560 kilos of hashish was going to be sent in a 40-foot container that declared it was carrying almost ten tons of used clothing, arriving at the port of Alicante, for subsequent transfer by a transport company contracted by the organization to its end-use in the Murcian town.

Once the container was unloaded in Alicante, and received by the same person who sent it from the port of origin, the appropriate surveillance was carried out jointly by Customs Surveillance and the Civil Guard, allowing investigators to detect how, at the destination of the drugs in Murcia, numerous counter-surveillance measures were being carried out by the persons receiving the shipment, who had full control of the industrial estate to which the shipment was destined.

After an unsuccessful attempt to receive the container on December 2, the transport company was finally able to deliver it on the 5th. During the course of the investigation, and when the operations detected that the recipients of the hashish were checking the bags containing the drug, a rapid police deployment was carried out, proceeding to the arrest of 12 people related to this delivery.

Entries and records

Based on the clues and evidence detected regarding the origin of the people involved and the destination of the drugs, searches were carried out at a home and a bar in Malaga, as well as at a warehouse in the Los Torraos industrial estate in Ceutí, Murcia.

In addition, both searches revealed documentation related to the shipment of other containers from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, as well as foreign registration plates and a nautical GPS navigator.

For all these reasons, on December 7, the detainees were brought before the on-duty court of Molina de Segura (Murcia), and the person primarily responsible for the shipment was ordered to be sent to prison.

This police operation was carried out by the Customs Surveillance Service of Las Palmas and Alicante, as well as by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of Las Palmas, the UDAIF of the Fiscal Company of Las Palmas, and with the support of different units of the Civil Guard Commands of Murcia, Alicante and Malaga.