• Ten people have been arrested and 72 bales of hashish weighing almost 3,000 kilos have been seized, along with a modified shotgun, two handguns, an air rifle and seven vehicles.

• Two of the vehicles seized in this operation were listed as stolen.

April 23, 2026. Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard, in a joint operation called 'Phoenix', have dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking in Granada and Almería. As a result of this operation, ten people have been arrested and 72 bales of hashish weighing almost 3,000 kilos have been seized, along with a modified shotgun, two handguns, an air rifle and seven vehicles.

The agents learned that a criminal organization was smuggling large quantities of hashish along the Granada coast using high-speed boats and then storing it in secure locations. Therefore, in December 2025, an investigation was launched to try to identify the people behind these activities.

Three months after the operation was brought to court, the agents noticed evidence suggesting that the members of the organization were preparing to carry out a drug shipment. At that moment, a police operation was deployed over the area of ​​operations of the criminal organization.

In mid-March, the cameras of the Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE) detected a fast vessel (EAV) approaching the Granada coast, so the investigators established a joint operational device to try to intercept it. Finally, the vessel landed on a beach in the eastern part of Granada, and the members of the network began unloading bales into several vehicles. After being surprised by the officers deployed at the scene, they fled.

Once the stash area was under control, the investigators managed to secure part of the merchandise that the organization had introduced into a workshop owned by one of the suspects. Subsequently, with the help of the Citizen Security units, a search was carried out in the area to locate the individuals who had participated in the unloading of the bales of hashish and four members of the organization were arrested.

Entries and records

Subsequently, and with the corresponding judicial authorization, seven raids were carried out, five of them in the province of Granada and two in the province of Almería, both in the homes of the targets, as well as in warehouses, farms and storage rooms used by the criminal organization to store the introduced drugs or vehicles used for transport or infrastructure work, in the provinces of Granada and Almería.  In these searches, a total of 72 bales of hashish were seized, weighing almost 3,000 kilos, and six people were arrested.

During the search of the van used to transport the hashish from the beach to one of the nurseries, three weapons were found, one of them a modified and loaded shotgun with a cartridge in the chamber, and two handguns, also loaded, one of them with another cartridge in the chamber, ready to be used.

Furthermore, within the framework of the asset investigation linked to money laundering, the blocking of various movable and immovable assets used by the criminal organization, valued at more than 500,000 euros, has been requested.

The 'modus operandi' used by the organization consisted of bringing the drugs in from Morocco in high-speed boats, unloading them on the Granada coast, keeping them hidden for a while and then transporting them to Europe camouflaged in different forms of transport, from where they were sold.

In total, ten people have been arrested for an alleged crime of drug trafficking, belonging to a criminal organization, illegal possession of weapons, robbery and use of a motor vehicle and falsification of a public document, five of them having entered prison after being placed at the disposal of the Civil and Instruction Section of the Court of First Instance of Motril, square nº 4.

The hashish seizure made in this operation is one of the largest on the Granada coast using high-speed boats in recent years.

The investigation has been carried out by the Granada Operational Unit of Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Command of the Civil Guard of Granada, with the collaboration of the Regional Center for Analysis and Intelligence against Drug Trafficking (CRAIN) of the Civil Guard.