Spain’s Tax Agency announced on 9 October 2017 that it had dismantled a hashish trafficking organisation operating between Spain and France in a joint investigation with the French Gendarmerie, supported by Europol, Eurojust and Interpol.[1] The nine-month operation seized a total of 2,800 kilos of hashish in four police operations and led to ten arrests, including the ringleader.[1]
The network was based in Girona and moved hashish by road in vans from the south of Spain to premises in Sarrià de Ter and a warehouse in Bàscara, then on to France in vehicles with forged French number plates, using shuttle cars for counter-surveillance.[1] Once in France, the drug was distributed to buyers in the Marseille, Paris and Lyon areas.[1]
In the final simultaneous operations on 1 October in France and Spain, the French Gendarmerie and the Tax Agency’s Customs Surveillance unit seized 346 kilograms of hashish from a Mercedes Sprinter van with a false bottom at the Vienne toll in France and 30.7 kilograms from the organisation’s warehouse in Sarriá de Ter, arresting three people in France and three in Spain, including the leader.[1] Earlier seizures in the same investigation totalled 465 kilograms from an Iveco lorry in France in February, 1,276 kilograms from a Spanish Scania lorry in France in March, 659 kilograms in Alicante in June and 24 kilograms at Melilla customs in August.[1]
Eleven vehicles and 26,520 euros in cash, vacuum-packed and hidden in one of the vehicles, were also seized.[1] Those arrested face accusations of smuggling, offences against public health, forgery and membership of a criminal organisation.[1]
