Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• It has been completely dismantled after the arrest of members of all hierarchical levels, including leaders and subordinates.
• A tonne of hashish was seized when it was going to be introduced through the Guadalete river as it passes through El Puerto de Santa María.
• The operation, which began in September 2020, has resulted in the arrest of 23 people accused, mainly, of the crimes of drug trafficking and belonging to a criminal organization.
• A total of ten house searches have been carried out and the organization's operations and communications center in the Sierra de San Cristóbal has been dismantled.

July 10, 2021.- Officials from the Tax Agency and agents from the National Police have dismantled one of the most active criminal organizations dedicated to the introduction of hashish along the coasts of Cádiz. The operation is part of the Security Plan for Campo de Gibraltar. 

Investigators began their investigation after spotting a number of suspicious recreational vessels in the Rota marina. As the investigation progressed, they managed to identify the people who were really behind these boats, leading them to a criminal organisation specialising in smuggling large quantities of hashish through the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar.

It was possible to determine the presence of two different criminal structures actively collaborating in the commission of the criminal offense. The first structure, based in La Línea de la Concepción, was responsible for negotiating directly with suppliers of the narcotic substance in Morocco, for which they deployed a large number of high-speed inflatable boats under their control, carrying out the loading of the narcotic and its transfer to the area of the Bay of Cádiz. The second structure, based in the same bay, deployed a series of recreational vessels that carried out the unloading of hashish through the waters of the Guadalete River.

In this way, researchers have been able to determine once again that the natural organisations of Campo de Gibraltar are acting outside their normal scope, requiring the collaboration of other local organisations that control and know their area of action.

The structure, located in the Bay of Cadiz, had its operations centre in the Sierra de San Cristóbal de El Puerto de Santa María, taking advantage of its special geographical location to control the entry of narcotics via the river. Until its complete dismantling, they used the drug-jetty of the town of Doña Blanca to unload hashish, later using their extensive knowledge of the special orography of the riverbed to undertake the unloading taking advantage of the low tide. Once the modus operandi of the criminal organization was determined, the role played by each of its members could be determined, discovering that they were using at least six different recreational boats to bring in the narcotics.

Transfer of bales

A joint operation between the National Police and the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance Department was able to determine the presence of a large, powerful semi-rigid boat loaded with numerous bales of hashish off the Bay of Cadiz. In this way, and thanks to the technical means of the investigation, it was possible to see how two recreational boats set sail from the area of influence of the Bay of Cadiz until they made contact with the inflatable boat, beginning the transfer of numerous bales to the recreational boats.

At that time, one of the boats was intercepted as it was preparing to introduce a tonne of hashish into the Guadalete River. At the same time, and with the collaboration of the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard, the second vessel was intercepted, whose crew had thrown the narcotic substance overboard without recovering it. Five people were arrested during the operation.

Finally, on June 22, investigators carried out the exploitation phase, requesting the court to carry out ten raids and searches in the towns of El Puerto de Santa María, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Jerez de la Frontera, Barbate and La Línea de la Concepción.

Seized material

As a result, investigators arrested 20 people and dismantled the criminal organization's operations center, located in the Sierra de San Cristóbal, seizing 20 radio transmission devices, two charging stations, a long-distance radio signal amplifier, numerous disposable phones and prepaid cards, satellite phones for long-distance communications with mother ships, a high-performance surveillance drone to monitor the riverbed during drug inflows, GPS signal detectors, frequency inhibitors and electronic GPS tracking devices.

After nine months of investigation, the criminal organization has been dismantled, with the leaders, subordinates, security and logistics officers, and even those employed in static and dynamic security tasks having been arrested. Of the 23 detainees brought before the court, thirteen have been remanded in custody.