At about 7.45pm on Friday 8 January 2021, a member of the public called the Royal Gibraltar Police control room about a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) that had run aground at the northern end of Eastern Beach.[1] Officers found the abandoned seven-metre boat with 32 bales of cannabis resin, put at about 1.3 tonnes, and recovered it with help from HM Customs Gibraltar, while the Gibraltar Defence Police helped search for a crew seen fleeing on foot north towards Spain.[2]
Live intelligence exchanges through the night between RGP detectives, Spain’s Policia Nacional and the Guardia Civil led to officers stopping a soaking wet, sandy, shoeless man with no travel documents as he tried to enter Spain on foot at the land frontier at 9.15pm.[1] RGP drug squad officers identified him as 31-year-old Moroccan national Mourad Boulaich Mehamdi, found about 50.9 grams of cannabis resin on him, and found phone photographs dated 8 January 2021 showing him aboard the seized RHIB with the bales behind him.[1] He denied involvement when interviewed that night at New Mole House, was charged with importing a prohibited import and a controlled Class B drug and possession with intent to supply, and was due before the Magistrates’ Court on 11 January 2021.[2][1]
Sentence
At Gibraltar’s Supreme Court on 11 February 2022, Boulaich Mehamdi, 32, of Tangier pleaded guilty to importation of a Class B drug, possession of 1.03 tonnes of cannabis resin and being a non-Gibraltarian in Gibraltar without a valid permit or certificate, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.[1] The court put the imported cannabis at £5.15 million; further charges of possession with intent to supply and prohibited importation of the RHIB were left on file.[1]