Operation of the Tax Agency against drug trafficking

• Agents from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency discovered three vans that were transporting the drugs in the early hours of Monday morning after storing them in a cove in the north of the island.

• The drug traffickers, upon detecting the Customs vehicle, braked suddenly, causing a collision between the vans, and fled.

• The recent arrests indicate an increase in the activity of criminal organizations that introduce hashish from North Africa in the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands, usually using high-speed semi-rigid inflatable boats.

October 25, 2023.- Agents of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency in Ibiza, within the framework of a coastal control operation, have seized 8,300 kilos of hashish in the early morning from last October 22 to 23, after discovering red-handed an organization that was transporting drugs in vehicles involved in a stash carried out in the northern part of the island. This is the largest historical seizure of hashish made in the Balearic Islands to date.

Customs Surveillance officials were carrying out land patrol surveillance along the coast of Ibiza, when they detected three large capacity and storage vans circulating almost without lights on a road that connects Sant Joan de Labritja with one of the coves of this municipality.

The drivers of the three vans, upon detecting the Customs police vehicle, braked suddenly, causing a collision between them, and the occupants fled through the forest.

Immediately, given signs of encountering a drug stash operation on the beach, the Customs patrol requested support from all Customs Surveillance units, which urgently went to the scene and began carrying out searches in the area to discover the suspects. involved in the events.

Investigations remain open and arrests are not ruled out in the coming days.

The three vans seized were loaded with a large number of burlap packages, the kind commonly used for hashish trafficking by sea. Altogether, the agents seized a total of 216 packages of hashish with an approximate gross weight of 8,300 kilos of hashish.

Investigators are considering the possibility that the criminal organization used the island of Ibiza as a temporary reception point for drugs for subsequent redistribution to other parts of the European continent.

Historic seizure in the Balearic Islands

This seizure represents the largest cache of this type of narcotic substance seized in the history of the Balearic Islands, thus surpassing the intervention of the vessel 'Sol de España', intercepted in 2001 in Cala Ratjada, and which was transporting 7,700 kilos of hashish.

This action in Ibiza temporarily coincides with the seizure in Mallorca of two other 35 kilo bales during the afternoon of Sunday, October 22, which were discovered floating off the coast of Andratx and recovered by the 'Paiño' patrol boat of the Customs Surveillance Service.

It is also worth remembering the similarity of this seizure with the cache of 875 kilos of hashish seized by the Combined Customs Surveillance Unit of Ibiza in February of this same year in the north of Ibiza in a police operation with similar characteristics.

The recent arrests indicate an increase in the activity of criminal organizations in the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands that introduce hashish from North Africa, usually using high-speed semi-rigid inflatable boats.