Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• There are seven people arrested in the province of Girona, of five different nationalities, and two sailboats that were used to load drugs in the waters of Ibiza and transport them to the peninsular coast have been seized.
• The property that the organization used to receive the hashish had its own pier and inside it also housed a marijuana plantation, which has been dismantled.
• This is the largest seizure of hashish on sailboats in the province of Girona in the last decade, in a context of renewed use of the Catalan coast for stashes of this drug.

April 28, 2023.- Customs Surveillance Officials of the Tax Agency and agents of the National Police, within the framework of a joint investigation, have dismantled an organization that intended to introduce 3,000 kilos of hashish in Girona by sailboats. There are seven people arrested in the province of Girona, of five different nationalities, and two sailboats that were used to load drugs in the waters of Ibiza and transport them to the peninsular coast have been seized.

The property that the organization used to receive the hashish had its own pier and inside it also housed a marijuana plantation, which, along with another located in a different property, have also been intervened.

The operation started at the end of last year. Customs Surveillance in Girona begins the investigation into a criminal group that could be introducing hashish in the area of Santa Margarida (Roses). The investigation focused on a series of citizens of various nationalities who traveled in pleasure boats to the south of Ibiza, where they received a large quantity of hashish that they subsequently unloaded at the mooring of a private house in the town of Girona.

It was then that, through the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), a joint investigation began to be coordinated between the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the National Police.

'Daycare' with its own pier

The organization, to carry out its illicit activity, chose a location that made the work of investigators difficult. It was a residential area with canals, where the houses have their own pier only accessible from the homes. In addition, temporary residents and tourists of different nationalities normally live there. This high turnover and the characteristics of the homes made the detection of members of the organization more complex.

As a result of the investigations, it was learned that the organization was going to go out to sea after Easter. Customs Surveillance officials in Girona, with the support of the Customs Surveillance Reaction and Intervention Group of Catalonia, organized a waiting device that lasted from the arrival of the sailboat, at noon on the 12th, until the early hours of April 13, when They verified that those investigated were loading the bales of hashish into a van and decided to intervene.

It had been observed how those investigated entered and left the boat to the house, using frontal devices with light to be able to minimally illuminate the area, which was in complete darkness. Once the bales had been transferred from the boat to the house, they placed the van at the door and proceeded to load it.

At that time, Customs Surveillance investigators detained three people, after rescuing one of them, who had jumped into the water to try to escape.

In subsequent actions, four other people were arrested and 75 bales of hashish were seized, yielding a weight of 2,854 kilos of narcotic drugs. Likewise, a second sailboat that the organization intended to use for transportation was seized, but which was finally discarded as a result of a breakdown.

864 marijuana plants intervened

In the search of the home, which had been used for the stash, a marijuana plantation was also found, making it unusual for them to be installed in the same property intended to store hashish. In the house searches carried out later, another plantation was intervened.

In total, 75 bales of hashish, 864 marijuana plants, the two sailboats and a van have been seized. The seven detainees (two German citizens, a Colombian, a Frenchman, two Spaniards and a Romanian) have been handed over to the Investigative Court number 6 of Figueres, which has conducted the investigations.

The large amount of hashish seized in this operation represents the largest seizure of this drug in the province of Girona, which has been introduced by sea with pleasure boats in the last decade, in a context in which the Catalan coast is once again becoming used for hashish stashes.

The action, coordinated through the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), has been developed by the Combined Customs Surveillance Units of Girona and Cádiz and the National Police.