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Date Published: 19/04/2021

ARCHIVED - 64 arrests across Spain as police dismantle nationwide narco-boat and drug supply network

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The organisation’s ringleaders had operational bases in Málaga, La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) and Calpe (Alicante).

The Guardia Civil has broken up an important criminal network that smuggled hashish into Spain from Morocco and supplied large quantities of drugs to other groups, as well as building and storing drug boats for them.

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - 64 arrests across Spain as police dismantle nationwide narco-boat and drug supply network

Operation Desvanes-Dunas saw 64 suspects arrested and another 10 investigated for alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organisation, drug trafficking, falsification of documents, usurpation of civil status, smuggling and illegal weapon possession, the police force has reported.

Thirty-eight searches were carried out in the Málaga, Cádiz, Almería, Albacete, Alicante and Murcia provinces, and 2,313 kilos of hashish, 118,000 euros in cash and 22 high-speed boats valued at six million euros were seized.

Other items found include a boat manufacturing mould, weapons, vehicles, more than 37,000 litres of petrol for refuelling the boats at sea, frequency jammers and communications equipment.

The group, the police explained, provided other drug-trafficking gangs with a range of services including the manufacture and storage of high-speed narco-boats, supplying fuel, faking documents to make the boats appear legal and dealing with places to launch them.

Arrestees obtained copies of paperwork for existing boats by contacting vendors through buy and sell groups, masquerading as potential buyers. They then adapted the copied documents to the vessels they were manufacturing for traffickers.

The boats were built in industrial warehouses in Monda, Coín and Antequera in Málaga province, and in Albacete, where officers found the mould. They were then stored in warehouses in Crevillente (Alicante) and Antas (Almería) before being transported and launched, generally outside Andalusia due to police pressure in the area in recent years.

The group had carried out at least 23 launchings, some in the Alicante towns of Calpe, Altea and Guardamar del Segura or in Carboneras (Almería) and La Azohía (Murcia), which were aborted by the Guardia Civil. In October, they also tried to launch a boat in Setúbal (Portugal) but failed, with a mishap leading to the lorry and semi-trailer carrying the vessel ending up in the sea, where they abandoned them and fled back to Spain.