Tax Agency seizes 3.4 tonnes of hashish off Huelva in autumn 2012
Spain's Tax Agency seized 3,373 kilos of hashish in three operations off Huelva and stopped a further 3,000 kilos reaching the Málaga coast in September and October 2012. Three crew members were arrested and three vessels were seized.
Spain’s Tax Agency seized3,373 kilos of hashish in Huelva and stopped a further 3,000 kilos reaching the Málaga coast in three operations announced on 25 October 2012.[1]Three people were arrested and three vessels were seized.[1]
In the first operation on 9 October, a customs patrol boat found an unmanned pleasure craft moored at a jetty inside the Huelva estuary carrying bales of the type used for hashish, towed it to the Huelva base and weighed 973 kilos.[1]South of Marbella, customs air and sea units spotted three semi-rigid inflatable boats heading for the Málaga coast, but the smugglers threw more than 100 bales, about 3,000 kilos, overboard and fled; officers intercepted one dinghy and arrested its three crew members.[1]In a third operation in the early hours of 14 September off Huelva, run jointly with the National Police, officers seized a 12-metre inflatable with three outboard engines after spotting it sailing without lights, along with 2,400 kilos.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Only the Tax Agency English statement could be opened for this event and no independent press account was found.
The Marbella interception carries no date in the statement, so the report uses the 25 October statement date for three operations spanning 14 September to October.
The 3,000 kilos thrown overboard off Marbella was described as prevented rather than recovered, so only the 3,373 kilos seized in Huelva is recorded.
No court outcome for the three arrested crew members was reported in the opened source.
No verifiable photo of the vessels or the seized hashish could be recovered.
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