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A yacht carrying more than 4,300 kilos of hashish was intercepted in waters close to Calpe marina

Joint operation between the Tax Agency, Civil Guard and National Police

  • Six people arrested thanks to the coordination of the air and land resources deployed by Customs Surveillance, National Police and Civil Guard
  • The traffickers were surprised in the middle of the night by the patrol boat 'Arao' of the Tax Agency when they were trying to unload in the port of the Alicante coast

July 24, 2020 .- Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency and agents from the National Police and Civil Guard, within the framework of the joint operation 'Hollín', have prevented the introduction into national territory of a shipment of 4,380 kilos of hashish. The cargo was travelling on a Spanish-flagged yacht that was intercepted by the Tax Agency's patrol boat 'Arao' just as the traffickers were preparing to unload the drugs in the marina of Calpe (Alicante).

As a result of the coordination of the air and sea resources deployed by the three bodies, the seizure of the drugs has been accompanied by the arrest of six members of the organization, including the two crew members of the boat and four other people who were waiting on land for the unloading.

The operation began last March, following preliminary investigations by the Alicante Customs Surveillance Operational Unit in the area surrounding the province's nautical facilities, where investigators detected the presence of a yacht-type vessel, flying a Spanish flag, whose crew aroused the investigators' suspicions.

Once the investigation was focused and the vessel and its crew became targets, the coordination of information through CITCO, the Intelligence Centre against Terrorism and Organised Crime, made it possible to share the data obtained until then with that held by the Civil Guard and National Police units, which in turn had also been analysing these people.

From this moment on, the control and surveillance of the objectives is permanent in the different ports that the crew members frequented with their recreational yacht.

Boarding and arrests

The events were precipitated last week during one of the port departures, given that the behaviour of the crew indicated that they were already ready to collect the cargo in the open sea. The operation is then activated, with a large deployment of air, naval and land resources to ensure that no details of the yacht's movements and contacts are lost.

Given the poor state of the sea, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday it was decided to keep on the lookout and constantly monitoring the target, the means provided by the Tax Agency, the patrol boat 'Arao', the helicopter Argos II, based in Almería, and the Customs Surveillance plane based in San Javier (Murcia).

Finally, the Árao surprised the yacht's crew at around four o'clock on Wednesday morning, when they were already heading to the Puerto Blanco marina, Calpe, carrying out its boarding to prevent the delivery of the drugs to the rest of the organisation, who were waiting on land with a large van.

The yacht tried to escape from the patrol boat, but its efforts were in vain. They were quickly neutralized by the Árao's crew, who during the assault had already found the huge quantity of burlap bales that were traveling on board the smuggling vessel.

While Customs Surveillance officers arrested the two crew members of the yacht, the four members of the criminal organisation who were waiting with the van, fled, which was quickly stopped with their arrest thanks to the police deployment on land arranged by the Civil Guard, National Police and Customs Surveillance.

Once the targets were neutralized and the cargo secured, the 'Arao' began returning to its base in Alicante with the vessel captured and its two crew members detained, while the remaining four remained in the custody of the police units that operated on land.

On Wednesday afternoon, a commission from the Alicante Court of Instruction on duty appeared on board the yacht that had been seized, along with its skipper, one of the people arrested, to carry out the search, and 134 bales of hashish were found, weighing 4,380 kilos. At the same time, a search was carried out in Calpe at a home related to one of the detainees in the van. The detainees and the proceedings carried out will be placed at the disposal of the Investigative Court No. 2 of Denia, acting as on-call court.

The Combined Customs Surveillance Unit of the Tax Agency in Alicante, the EDOA team of the Civil Guard of the Alicante Command, the UDYCO group of the National Police also from Alicante, and the Narcotics Group of the National Police in Elche have participated in the investigations and in the operation of arrests and searches.

Operation filming (to download the videos, enter the following web address):

https://we.tl/t-H8CQu57xiU