Fishing boat boarded off Cartagena with 9 tonnes of hashish
Spanish Customs Surveillance boarded the flagless trawler Avenir de Safi II about 50 miles south-east of Cartagena on 12 October 2013 and found around 300 bales of hashish resin, weighing about nine tonnes, hidden in its cold store. The six Moroccan crew members were arrested and the vessel was towed to Cartagena.
🇪🇸 Mediterranean Sea, about 50 miles south-east of Cartagena, Murcia · Spain
Spanish Customs Surveillance intercepted the trawler Avenir de Safi II about 50 miles south-east of Cartagena on the afternoon of Saturday 12 October 2013 and found nearly nine tonnes of hashish resin hidden in its cold store.[1]Customs aircraft had spotted the flagless vessel 49 nautical miles out, showing poor maintenance and sailing in waters unusual for its type.[1]
Officers from the patrol vessel Abanto boarded the trawler and found about 300 bales of the type commonly used to transport hashish, which pending official weighing could hold around 9,000 kilos.[1]The six crew members, all of Moroccan origin, were arrested immediately, and the vessel was towed to the port of Cartagena.[1]The detainees, the vessel and the drugs were handed to the investigating magistrate’s court acting as duty court in Cartagena.[1]
The agency presented the seizure, under Operation Lamed, as the third large hashish interception on the eastern Mediterranean route since June 2013, bringing that route’s running total past 40 tonnes.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Spanish Tax Agencysede.agenciatributaria.gob.esThe Tax Agency intercepts a fishing vessel carrying 9 tonnes of hashish in a new operation against drug trafficking in the Eastern Mediterranean
Open questions the AI reported
Only the Tax Agency's statement could be opened for this event; no independent press account was found.
The nine-tonne figure was pending official weighing when the statement was published; the final weighed total was not in the opened source.
The origin of the hashish was not stated in the opened source.
The outcome of the proceedings before the Cartagena duty court was not reported.
No verifiable photo of the trawler or the seized hashish could be recovered.
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