BRITONS ARRESTED FOR SMUGGLING DANGER DRUG
TWO BRITONS have been arrested in connection with a drug shipment with a street value of €3.5 million which was brought into Spain via Alicante-Elche airport.
A spokesman for the Guardia Civil said officers had detected the ‘synthetic cannabinoid’ in packets of coffee sent from Hong Kong.
He admitted that little had been known about the substance until tests were carried out, which found that it was 80 times stronger than normal cannabis.
“This means that anyone consuming the drug would have been in grave danger,” noted the spokesman.
He explained that airport customs officers had been suspicious about the arrival of the packages last month.
At that time they asked for tests to be carried out on what they suspected was a new drug that had not yet been cat- egorised. It turned out to be a synthetic cannabinoid which is often marketed as a designer drug or sold in products with claims that they give the effects of cannabis.
He noted that the packages were destined for a bar in El Campello ‘frequented by the British community from that town’.
“An Elche court authorised the delivery of the packages to the address, with surveillance by the authorities,” noted the spokesman.
The operation resulted in the arrest of a 36-year-old Briton ‘just as he was about to pick them up’.
The Guardia Civil believe that this suspect ‘carried out the job of collecting the consignment for the organisation which was smuggling in the drug’.
The spokesman said that officers continued with the investigation, arresting a 37year-old Briton two days later at Alicante-Elche airport as he was about to flee the country.
The spokesman highlighted the importance of the operation as it had prevented 12 kilos of an ‘unknown’ dangerous drug from entering Spain.
“Taking into account the seriousness of the case and the danger of the drug for human consumption, as well as the possible risk of flight of the suspects, a judge has sent them to prison on remand,” noted the spokesman.