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Date Published: 30/06/2025

4 Irishmen arrested in Spain drug bust: Gang was smuggling cocaine to UK and Ireland inside industrial machinery

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Police seized 84 kilos of cocaine hidden in an industrial drill and arrested four Irish nationals on the Costa Blanca

4 Irishmen arrested in Spain drug bust: Gang was smuggling cocaine to UK and Ireland inside industrial machinery

A gang of drug traffickers operating out of the Orihuela Costa and San Miguel de Salinas area of Alicante province has been dealt a major blow after a routine complaint led Guardia Civil investigators to uncover a bold cross-border smuggling operation.

The network had been hiding large amounts of cocaine and hashish inside industrial machines and sending them off to the UK and Ireland using local transport companies.

It all started in early June 2025, when a transport company in Lorquí (Murcia) filed a complaint with the Guardia Civil. One of their lorry drivers had been arrested in France after customs officers found a whopping 340 kilos of hashish hidden in what was supposed to be a shipment of industrial fans bound for Liverpool.

That set off a deeper investigation involving Murcia’s organised crime unit and the Customs Surveillance Service. With permission from a judge in Molina de Segura, they tapped phones and installed tracking devices on two vehicles linked to the suspects. What they uncovered was a full-blown international trafficking ring that was using companies in Alicante and Murcia to move drugs hidden inside heavy-duty equipment.

Their next break came when they learned the same group was planning to send a similar shipment to Dublin. They tracked the gang to a company in Monóvar, where a lorry showed up on June 11 with what appeared to be an ordinary industrial drill.

But inside the machine, officers found 84.2 kilos of cocaine cleverly concealed. The drugs were seized and the drill, now clean, was sent to Ireland on June 13, where police across the water were ready and waiting to see who would collect it.

On June 20, after the shipment arrived, Guardia Civil officers moved in and arrested four Irish nationals living in Orihuela Costa and San Miguel de Salinas. Among those detained was the lorry driver.

Officers also seized two firearms during searches, which the Guardia Civil said highlights just how dangerous this group was. Interestingly, they’d already prepared another drill for transport, but that one turned out to be empty. It was possibly being used for a test run or a backup plan.

Despite the arrests, all four suspects have been released on provisional liberty after appearing in court in Torrevieja and Orihuela. Two of them were represented by well-known lawyers Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella and Iván Rodríguez Lorente.

For now, the case is being handled by a court in Molina de Segura, as that’s where the original complaint was filed. However, it may eventually be transferred to a court in Alicante, given the local links to the gang’s operations.

Image: Guardia Civil

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