Costa drug smuggling racket exposed
Hashish was hidden in a secret compartment
A NEW drug smuggling route from North Africa via the Canary Islands was discovered by the Guardia Civil when they took down a gang allegedly led by the owners of a transport company in Alicante province.
Officers have arrested six people, five Spaniards and an Albanian, intercepted 1,600 kilos of hashish, and seized incriminating documentation and materials from addresses in Orihuela, Pilar de la Horadada, Las Torres de Cotillas (Murcia) and Antigua (Fuerteventura), explained a spokesman for the force.
The investigation started in August when officers learned that a known criminal from Torres de Cotillas had bought an old semitrailer tanker and rented a lorry to tow it, financed by an Alicante-based transport company, and had started the procedure to take it to the Canary Islands despite having no commercial interests there.
Officers followed the vehicle to Motril on the south coast, where it was loaded with a token amount of cane sugar molasses typically used for fertiliser before continuing.
On arrival in Fuerteventura, several people were waiting, including another known criminal from Torres de Cotillas, who specialised in making false floors for vehicles.
This suspect was found to have set up a fruit and vegetable company on the island, apparently as a front to cover drug shipments.
After talking with them for a few hours, the driver dumped the molasses into a watercourse and went to a warehouse in Antigua.
The next day, the truck set off to leave the island with a supposedly legal cargo provided by the fruit and veg company, while the Guardia Civil continued to follow.
When the truck was intercepted, the hashish was found hidden under a ‘sophisticated false floor hidden inside’, and the four addresses were searched afterwards.
The investigation indicates that the gang was led by two businesspeople in the transport sector based in Alicante, who were collaborating with two experienced drug traffickers.
They took advantage of the Canary Islands’ proximity to North Africa to use them as a stopover when bringing drugs from Morocco to the mainland.
Some of the shipments are suspected to have been destined for other European countries.
The Guardia Civil believe the gang has been dismantled and the investigation is now in the hands of a court in Molina de Segura.