Operation of the Tax Agency against drug trafficking

• Agents from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency discovered three vans transporting the drugs in the early hours of Monday after unloading 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.

• Recent arrests indicate an increase in the activity of criminal organisations in the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands that introduce hashish from North Africa, 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 hours of October 22-23, after discovering in flagrante an organization that was transporting the drug in vehicles involved in a stash made in the northern part of the island. This is the largest historical seizure of hashish in the Balearic Islands to date.

Customs Surveillance officers were carrying out land patrol surveillance along the coast of Ibiza when they detected three high-capacity storage vans driving almost without lights on a road that links Sant Joan de Labritja with one of the coves in this municipality.

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

Immediately after the signs of a drug stash operation on the beach, the Customs patrol requested support from all Customs Surveillance units, who urgently went to the scene and began to carry out raids in the area to discover those involved in the events.

Investigations are still ongoing 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 trafficking hashish by sea. In total, 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 organisation used the island of Ibiza as a temporary reception point for the drugs for later redistribution to other parts of the European continent.

Historic seizure in the Balearic Islands

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

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

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

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