Spanish police seize four tonnes of hash, arrest 15 | Rest of the world

Spanish police seize four tonnes of hash, arrest 15

MADRID - Spanish police on Sunday said they had seized more than four tonnes of hashish on an ocean rescue boat off the Spanish coast and arrested 15 people in the latest of a series of raids on drug trafficking rings.

In a statement police said ‘4.3 tonnes of hashish have been seized in the cabins of a small boat used for ocean rescue operations.’

The 15 people arrested were Spanish, Colombian, Romanian and Moroccan nationals, police said.

Three of them were crew members, one was the suspected head of a drug trafficking ring, and eight were suspected of trying to smuggle the drugs onto the Spanish island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea.

The investigation began in mid-January after police discovered trafficking rings in the southeastern Levant area and in northeastern Catalonia using an ocean rescue boat to carry drugs from Morocco to Ibiza.

A total of 13,000 euros (18,000 dollars), two kilos (4.4 pounds) of cocaine, five inflatable boats and 15 mobile phones were also seized in the police raid, according to the statement.

Spain is Europe’s main point of entry for Moroccan cannabis and for cocaine from South America.

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