Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• The boat left for the western coast of Morocco to load the drugs, later returning to Spanish waters due to bad weather.
• The two crew members of the sailboat, British nationals, who were boarded after being helped during a storm, have been arrested.

December 27, 2022.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, in collaboration with the National Police and with the participation of the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, has seized 4.4 tons of hashish inside a British sailboat in the bay of Cádiz. The boat left for the western coast of Morocco to load the drugs, having to return to Spanish waters due to weather conditions.

The operation has been carried out within the framework of international cooperation against drug trafficking, through the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center for Drug Trafficking (MAOC-N), a European control body in the Atlantic for suspicious vessels. In this area, the British authorities warned of the presence of a suspicious sailboat that could be found off the Spanish coast. The investigations revealed that the boat was going to be used to load a large quantity of hashish in Morocco to be later transported to South America.

At that time, investigations began to detect the presence of the vessel on the Andalusian coasts, and it was finally located by officials from the Cádiz Customs Surveillance Unit in Puerto América, one of the marinas in this town.

Once the sailboat, named 'IVY ROSA', was located, the surveillance and control device of the possible movements of the ship began, which left Cádiz towards the western coast of Morocco to load the drugs, later returning to Spanish waters because of bad weather in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Distress call and boarding

When the boat approached the bay of Cádiz to try to take refuge from the storm, in the early hours of last Saturday, and taking advantage of the call that its crew made to Maritime Rescue to provide them with help, the Customs Surveillance patrol boat 'Milano II' He used the factor of surprise to approach and approach the suspected target, observing inside numerous burlap and raffia packages commonly used for transporting this type of narcotics.

Once the boat was assisted and transferred to the port of Cádiz, its two crew members were detained and the corresponding search was carried out, locating 130 packages containing approximately 4,400 kilos of hashish resin.

Both the detainees, with the boat seized and the drugs seized, have been placed at the disposal of the Investigative Court number 2 of Cádiz.

The investigation remains open, so new arrests cannot be ruled out.