• The drugs had arrived by truck at an industrial warehouse in the Malaga town, where, behind closed doors, the pieces of hashish were heated in ovens to give them a cylindrical shape and, once pressed, were packaged to camouflage them among legal merchandise.

• Two people arrested for their alleged involvement in a crime against public health and another for belonging to a criminal organization

May 7, 2026. The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the National Police, have seized 816 kilos of hashish hidden in tomato cans, in Mollina (Malaga). The drugs had arrived by truck at an industrial warehouse in the town of Malaga, where, behind closed doors, the pieces of hashish were heated in ovens to give them a cylindrical shape and, once pressed, were packaged to camouflage them among legal merchandise. The agents have arrested two people of Lithuanian origin for their alleged involvement in a crime against public health in its form of drug trafficking and another of belonging to a criminal organization. The judicial authority –Civil and Instruction Section of the Antequera Court, Plaza Uno– has ordered the provisional imprisonment of those under investigation.

Operation 'Conclave'/'King', carried out jointly by officials from the Combined Unit of Malaga Customs Surveillance and agents attached to the Judicial Police of the Antequera Police Station, began after a logistics center used by a criminal network to receive, handle, process and package large quantities of drugs was detected in an industrial park in Mollina. Specifically, the irregular presence of a foreign truck accessing the warehouse at short intervals was noted, making investigators suspicious of the operation.

On April 30, the warehouse was entered for inspection, confirming suspicions of the existence of drugs with the seizure of 816 kilos of hashish hidden in tomato cans, and the two Lithuanian citizens in charge of the illicit activity were arrested.

Baked hashish

The method of concealing the substance consisted of preheating the hashish tablets, 100 grams each, through different ovens that had been installed in the warehouse, to later give them a cylindrical shape and press them into the cans, which were finally sealed and labeled –with the same distinctive features of a brand of tomato paste, which was unrelated to the plot–.

Ultimately, the criminal network intended to camouflage the cans containing the hashish among pallets of legal merchandise to ship them to Europe overland. With this operation, the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the National Police have thwarted the plans of the criminal network detected in the province of Malaga, seizing a significant amount of hashish ready for sale.