Dismantled a criminal organization that manufactured its own narco-boats to introduce hashish to the peninsula
More than three tons of hashish, seven high-speed boats, two articulated trucks and five passenger cars operated
The logistical and financial potential of the organization was of such a level that they had highly specialized personnel, such as professionals in naval mechanics.
The entire crew and a ship, loaded with bales of hashish, had to be rescued and towed to the port of Torrevieja at the end of February.
Two stash attempts were frustrated when they discovered two speedboats prepared to be launched and made the journey that would take them to collect hashish to African coasts.
Joint operation against drug caches in the Levant
The Civil Guard, the National Police and Customs Surveillance of Alicante have disarticulated in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia, in a joint operation, a criminal organization specialized in the manufacture of high-speed boats that were subsequently used to introduce hashish at great stopover on the Spanish coasts. The operation has resulted in 15 people being detained and the seizure of seven narco-boats, 3,357 kilos of hashish, two articulated trucks and five passenger cars.
This macro operation began last February after locating a high-speed boat (EAV) sailing adrift off the coast of Alicante from international waters. Investigators seized a shipment of more than 3 tons of hashish hidden in the pleasure boat, which nearly sank 40 miles from shore.
The refloating and rescue maneuver of the crew to the port of Torrevieja (Alicante) was so extremely complex that the collaboration of Salvamento Marítimo, Firefighters of Torrevieja and the master fishing master of Torrevieja was required. After various steps, investigators suspected that the boat could have been used by a well-known drug trafficker based in the Levante area.
As a result of this partial collapse, in the days that followed, bales of hashish drifted along the coasts of Murcia and Alicante. In total, a total of 5 bales were located that, together with those found on the boat, added the amount of 3,357 kg of hashish distributed in 84 burlap bales.
With the progress of the investigations, it was possible to establish the connection of these events with a criminal group of such logistical and financial power that it even had professionals in naval mechanics to manufacture, store and prepare narco-boats that would later be used to introduce hashish on the Spanish coasts by crossing the Mediterranean from African coasts.
The next blow to this organization happened in May. Four of its members were arrested when they were traveling with a high-speed boat, ready to be "thrown" into the water, hidden inside the semi-trailer of a truck.
The operation culminated, at the end of June, with the arrest of 11 other people, in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia, and two searches carried out on ships in the Santa Pola (Alicante) industrial estate where the organization had set up its base. Logistics.
In one of these ships, they seized three high-speed boats, one of them ready to be transported and dumped, so it was possible to truncate another cache of impending drugs. The narcolancha, already mounted on a truck's semi-trailer, was loaded with 119 carafes full of fuel, two high-powered outboard motors, as well as enough food for the crew to survive offshore for several days.
In total, 15 people have been arrested in the Alicante towns of Santa Pola, San Vicente del Raspeig and El Campello, as well as in La Manga and Murcia capital for the alleged commission, in different degrees of participation, of trafficking crimes drugs, membership of a criminal organization and against special smuggling legislation. Seven narco-boats, 3,357 kg of hashish, two articulated trucks and five passenger cars have been intervened.
The investigation has been directed by the Investigating Court number 6 of Alicante, entering five of the detainees in prison.
