Eight tonnes of cannabis seized from British trawler Squilla; seven arrested
Spanish and British police stopped the British-registered fishing boat Squilla in the Atlantic off western Spain on 5 June 2005 and found eight tonnes of cannabis worth an estimated 24 million pounds and believed bound for Scotland. Four crew members were arrested on board and three more people were detained in Glasgow and Perth.
🇪🇸 Atlantic Ocean off western Spain; vessel brought to Cádiz · Spain
Spanish and British authorities seized about eight tonnes of cannabis from the trawler Squilla in June 2005.[1][2][3]
Scottish police said they had broken up a major smuggling ring after a fishing boat carrying an estimated 24 million pounds worth of cannabis was stopped off Spain.[1]The British-registered Squilla was intercepted in the Atlantic Ocean off western Spain and taken to Cádiz in southern Spain.[1]Spain’s Interior Ministry said the boat had been stopped on the Sunday as part of Operation Bouzas, a joint Spanish-British operation begun three months earlier after a British request through Europol.[1]
The four crew members on board, including two Scots aged 49 and 43, were arrested, along with three more people in Glasgow and Perth.[1]Officers put the haul at eight tonnes and said they believed the drugs were destined for Scotland.[1]A later Scotsman account of the wider Operation Folklore investigation described the Squilla as a converted trawler owned by John Gorman that was intercepted off western Spain in June 2005 carrying cannabis worth 24 million pounds.[3]
Spain’s Interior Ministry said the British-registered Squilla was stopped on Sunday 5 June[1]2005 as part of Operation Bouzas, a joint Spanish-British inquiry running for three months[1]after a British request through Europol.[1]
The trawler was owned by John Gorman of Irvine, who was later jailed for 12 years for drug
trafficking and money laundering after the wider Operation Folklore inquiry into the Scottish
end of the trade.[4]Spanish customs and undercover police are credited with seizing the 24
million pound cannabis cargo from the vessel.[4]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Guardia Civil officers in Segovia dismantled a clandestine marijuana plantation hidden in a greenhouse near El Espinar after neighbours reported a strong smell of cannabis. Two local residents were placed under investigation for alleged drug-trafficking cultivation, and officers seized 8.05 kg of plant material.
The Guardia Civil investigated a man in Aguilar de la Frontera, Córdoba, after a neighbour reported being threatened with a short firearm; he handed over an air pistol. Officers then found eight cannabis plants, about 1.60 metres tall, grown inside his home, with buds weighing 920 grams, and put the file before a court.
Guardia Civil officers intercepted a parcel holding 15.9 kilos of hashish resin at a transport company near Asturias airport, then arrested the 37-year-old Seville man who flew in to collect it in a simulated delivery. A judge sent him to prison on 6 November 2026.
Mossos d'Esquadra found a fully equipped forest camp in Figuerola del Camp holding more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana buds ready for sale. No arrests were reported and the investigation to identify those behind the site remains open.
