Spanish police smashed two rings that smuggled hashish from Morocco into Spain by helicopter in dangerous low-altitude night flights, arresting 15 people and seizing nearly a tonne of hashish.
Morocco has become the world’s top producer and exporter of hashish over the past decades and, with just 14 kilometres separating northern Morocco from Spain’s southern Andalucia region, Spanish police have their work cut to stem the flow of illegal drugs.
The number of Spaniards who said they started using cannabis in 2013 outnumbered those who said they took up smoking cigarettes, according to a government study released Tuesday.
A helicopter loaded with hashish which crashed in southern Spain on Tuesday after hitting an electricity pylon was piloted by a major with the Albanian army, according to media reports.
Spanish police have seized 11 tonnes of hashish and detained 55 people as part of a vast operation targeting a Moroccan drug trafficking ring, sources said on Friday.
Drug traffickers tried to set fire to their own ship to get rid of tonnes of hashish on board after being intercepted by a Spanish navy ship, the Spanish government said on Tuesday.
Spanish police said on Friday they seized nearly 2.8 tonnes of hashish after a passerby spotted suspected traffickers onloading bundles from a rubber speedboat on a beach near the glitzy resort of Marbella.
Spain's Civil Guard police force has smashed a major airborne cannabis-smuggling organisation operating out of Cádiz, Spain's southernmost province, just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco.
Spanish authorities found 62 bales containing close to two tonnes of hashish that washed ashore on Monday on a beach in one of Spain's exclaves in North Africa, police said.
Spanish police announced on Friday they have seized a massive 32 tonnes of hashish hidden in a truck transporting melons from Morocco, one of the largest hauls on record in Spain.
