Joint operation with the French Customs

 

• Eight crew members of the merchant ship, all of Syrian nationality, arrested
• This is the sixth seizure carried out by Customs Surveillance on the Eastern Mediterranean route since last June.

 

March 17, 2014.- The Tax Agency through Customs Surveillance has intercepted in the early hours of Sunday a merchant ship with a flag of convenience that was transporting 12 tons of hashish in the Alboran Sea, southeast of Malaga. Its eight crew members, all of Syrian nationality, have been arrested.

The operation, called “Oriente”, began when air-naval surveillance means of Customs Surveillance and French Customs detected a suspicious merchant vessel that was making unusual movements in the Alboran Sea. The boat was suspicious because the area where it was located was unusual for a boat of that nature.

Once the appropriate air-naval device was established, the Customs Surveillance special operations patrol boat 'Fulmar' headed to the area to intercept the ship. Once located, with authorization from the flag country, they boarded the vessel, discovering at first glance bales of the type commonly used for transporting hashish which, pending an official count, could contain close to 12,000 kilos.

The eight crew members were immediately arrested and the ship and its merchandise were seized for subsequent transfer to the port of Malaga.

The detainees, the ship and the drugs have been placed at the disposal of the competent court.

 

Eastern Mediterranean Route

This operation marks the sixth time that large quantities of hashish have been seized by Customs on the 'Eastern Mediterranean route' since last June, with a total of more than 75 tonnes of drugs seized. To this end, the implementation of analysis and control devices on the Mediterranean trade route by the authorities of France, Italy and Spain has been essential, resulting in the interception of 11 ships carrying large loads of hashish.

This new operation confirms the importance of this new route opened for hashish trafficking. In the last twelve months, the authorities of Italy, France and Spain have seized the vessels 'Adam', 'Gold Star', 'Luna-S', 'Moon Light', 'Avenir de Safi II', an unnamed Egyptian fishing vessel, 'Berk Kaptan', 'A la voluntad de Dios', two more fishing vessels in Italy and, recently, the merchant vessel 'Mayak'.

Six of these operations were carried out by Customs Surveillance. All of them were transporting quantities of up to 30 tons of hashish. In order to control this new hashish trafficking route, the Customs and Excise Department of the Tax Agency has established intensive and permanent surveillance of the area, evaluating the risk of maritime traffic of goods and intensifying international collaboration.

As in its five previous operations, the seizure of the merchant ship 'Mayak' was the result of this strategy. Drug trafficking organizations are agile and flexible, adapting quickly to new scenarios. Controlling the Eastern Mediterranean route and this type of vessel is extremely complex. Investigators suspect that this route may be used by organisations based in North African countries. They would transport large quantities of hashish on merchant or fishing vessels, commercial ships that would carry out legal transports and, upon departure, with a brief technical stop, receive large quantities of hashish for transfer to the easternmost countries of the Mediterranean.

These ships can also be used as mother ships to transfer the hashish to other smaller vessels, which would introduce it directly to the Community, Spanish, French or Italian coast.