Operation of the Tax Agency, National Police and Civil Guard

• The operation ended with the arrest of two people in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz) and the seizure of 172 kilos of hashish.
• One of those arrested was making a sea crossing by sailboat to the Moroccan coast, where he loaded the narcotic substance that he hid in the cabins and, once back in territorial waters, requested maritime relief assistance after faking a breakdown or accident.
• Once in Spain, they moved the drugs in small batches to a storage room that was used as a nursery waiting to be transported out of the country.

February 10, 2022.- Customs Surveillance Officials from the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the Civil Guard and the National Police, with the international collaboration of the Portuguese Judiciary Police, have intervened in a storage room in Cádiz 172 kilos of hashish brought into Spain in the cabin of a sailboat. The operation, framed within the Meridional Plan and the Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar aimed at the fight against drug trafficking in the Campo de Gibraltar, has ended with the arrest of two people in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz).

To introduce the drugs, one of those arrested made a sea crossing by sailboat to the Moroccan coast, where he loaded the narcotic substance that he hid in the cabins; Once in territorial waters, it requested maritime relief assistance, faking a breakdown or accident, to enter port under tow. Once in Spain, they moved the drugs in small consignments to a storage room, located in the Cadiz municipality, which they used as a nursery while waiting to transport the narcotic out of the country.

The investigation began in the summer of 2021 when agents detected a sailboat-type vessel and several individuals, with a history of drug trafficking, making suspicious movements compatible with activities related to drug trafficking.

In June 2021, the main investigator – and owner of the boat – docked at the Barbate marina after having suffered an alleged attack by orcas while crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. The incident caused a change in the vessel used, however, it did not manage to move the focus away from the investigation to which it was being subjected.

After several investigations, the investigators learned of the existence of habitual movements of the main person under investigation to Lisbon, which is why they requested collaboration from the Portuguese Judiciary Police. As a result, they established a device made up of Customs Surveillance officials and agents from the National Police and Civil Guard, which made it possible to detect a meeting between the Spanish under investigation and a Portuguese citizen. Portuguese Judicial Police agents identified this person, known for his numerous records related to drug trafficking and illicit possession of weapons.

The investigators were able to document various encounters that allowed the Portuguese target to be assigned the role of owner of the narcotic substance and the person who financed all the operations necessary to conclude the drug trafficking; Meanwhile, the Spanish citizen was the one who sailed to a point in international waters, where the narcotic was loaded, returning to his base in a marina in the area.

A storage room as a drug nursery

As a result of the actions and monitoring, carried out jointly and coordinated between the Tax Agency, National Police and Civil Guard, it was recorded that, after returning from a voyage, again 'accident', in which they had to enter the port towed, those investigated were going to move a quantity of notorious importance between a storage room, which served as a nursery, and the neighboring country.

For all this and after becoming aware that they were moving the drugs to the controlled storage room, they were arrested and the corresponding entry and search warrants were requested from the judicial authority, which made it possible to seize 160 brick-shaped packages of hashish. , which later revealed a weight of 172 kilos, more than 63,000 euros in cash hidden in a safe, mobile phones, a vehicle and a laptop, and numerous documentation that evidenced the existence of these illicit operations since 2016, with a plan specifically designed to introduce narcotic substances into Europe through the use of sailing vessels.