Police operations point to Portugal and Galicia as a 'factory' for drug boats for hashish from Morocco

MADRID, 14 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The latest police operations to combat drug trafficking have focused on Portugal and southern Galicia as manufacturing and transport points for the high-powered drug boats used by criminal organizations in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Andalusian coast to transport hashish from the vast majority from Morocco, as police sources informed Europa Press.

The declaration of drug boats as a prohibited genre in October 2018 and the police reinforcement within the Campo de Gibraltar Special Security Plan, which has now just been reissued for the fourth time and which extends to six Andalusian provinces - all the coastal ones plus Seville, along the route taking advantage of the Guadalquivir, allowed the Security Forces to seize these boats even though they were not transporting drugs at the time they were seized.

The data from the Ministry of the Interior reflects that from 2018 to 2023 a total of 1,421 boats used by 'narco' have been seized, boats with characteristics similar to those used in the tragic event in which two Civil Guard agents were murdered. in Barbate when they were attacked.

An operation by the Civil Guard together with the Portuguese Police confirmed this reality in 2022 by dismantling an organization based in the north of Portugal and south of Galicia that was dedicated to the construction of these drug boats. They were manufactured in a warehouse at an industrial estate in Vigo and, later, they were used to introduce large quantities of hashish into the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar.

That Civil Guard operation resulted in 60 detainees, proving that the organization was based in different towns in Pontevedra and the north of Portugal, using transport companies to transfer the boats to secure warehouses in Toledo and Seville, where they had just been equipped. before its launching into the sea on the coast of Andalusia.

The connection with hashish from Morocco was reflected in many other operations, such as the one carried out by the Civil Guard on the Chafarinas Islands when they dismantled an important platform for the projection of drug boats in the summer of 2019, constituting a "maritime nursery" used to transport large quantities of hashish.

Since 2018, when the Plan against 'narco' in the Campo de Gibraltar came into force, almost 20,000 have been detained or investigated for drug trafficking in the south of Spain, including the leaders of the two main clans, that of Abdellah El Haj Sadek, alias 'Messi del hashí', and that of the brothers Francisco and Antonio Tejón, known as 'Los Castaña'.

This police pressure led the 'narcos' to disperse the drug caches, mainly hashish, to areas of the Andalusian coast and the Levant, including "with increasing frequency" Catalonia and even Portugal, as explained last October to Europa Press Ernesto Segura, commander of the Civil Guard at the Regional Center for Analysis and Intelligence against Drug Trafficking (CRAIN).

The 'narcos' use larger and more powerful boats to do so because a good part of their time is spent on the high seas, for which they need to stock up on gasoline and food, with quick portages to the coast to unload the drugs, looking for points alternatives to the usual ones on the beaches of Algeciras and the towns of Cadiz.

"If 1,421 vessels have been seized, the question that should be asked is how many are still circulating under the radar," said a source consulted by Europa Press in the fight against drug trafficking, who recalls that hashish, as is the case with cocaine, It is now sold in Spain at a "noticeably" lower price than a few years ago, which shows that there is a lot of surplus.

Apart from the departure of hashish from Morocco, this police command points out that one of the problems in dealing with 'narco' is that drug boats, although they have been banned in Spain and are confiscated, are still legal in neighboring countries such as Portugal and Morocco.

In October 2022, the National Police reported that it had dismantled another network located on the coasts of Cádiz and Málaga that was dedicated to manufacturing drug boats for the import of hashish from Morocco, for which it rented industrial warehouses in Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia and Valencian Community.

The narcotic was then transported by road to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. There were 21 detainees and, in addition to 296 kilos of vacuum-packed marijuana buds and hidden among lettuce in a refrigerated truck, another key element in this type of network was seized: 4,200 liters of fuel.

Precisely, the commander of the Civil Guard that is part of the CRAIN warned that the Strait gangs are allying with each other to subcontract services and be able to introduce drugs trying to overcome the police pressure in Campo de Gibraltar, which is why he advocated making changes legislative measures so that the collection of fuel linked to 'narco' is prosecuted criminally, and not only with an administrative sanction.

The concern over the collection of fuel by 'narco' is reflected in 'Operation Gas-ol' in Campo de Gibraltar, which allowed the Police to seize a total of 10,500 liters of gasoline and 1,684 kilos in the summer of 2019. of hashish, as well as four drug boats valued at 120,000 euros each. There were 61 detainees.

The same occurs with the extension of drug trafficking networks through the Levant. In June 2020, three tons of hashish were seized from an organization that manufactured its own drug boats. In fact, two boats prepared to be launched took a ship loaded with bales, which was intercepted and towed to the port of Torrevieja, in Alicante.