Spain’s Tax Agency and the Guardia Civil announced on 28 September 2022 that Operation Kazuya had dismantled a criminal organisation smuggling large quantities of hashish into the country in false bottoms built into pleasure craft.[1] Ten members were arrested and more than 4,600 kilos of hashish seized, along with eleven boats, ten vehicles, high-end cars, a drone, cash and equipment.[1] The group used the summer season as cover, taking its boats out as if for recreational fishing while moving hashish unloaded from the Moroccan coast.[1]
Three seizures at sea and on land
The operation began in June 2022 when officers tracked a pleasure boat returning toward Isla Cristina in Huelva, watched the group load it onto a road trailer, and found 720 kilos of hashish in a false bottom beneath the floor, arresting the driver.[1] Officers then seized two boats on the River Carreras carrying a further 1,959 kilos of hashish in sophisticated false bottoms, arresting their two skippers, who had posed as recreational fishermen.[2][1] After that arrest the network shifted to the River Piedras between Cartaya and Lepe, where officers seized three vessels with 1,980 kilos and arrested two crew members.[1]
Raids across four towns
Investigators then identified the organisation’s members and searched premises in Ayamonte, Isla Cristina, Lepe and Villablanca, arresting seven more people on suspicion of money laundering, membership of a criminal organisation and offences against public health.[1] The searches, authorised by an Ayamonte court, also recovered nine high-end vehicles, vans, motocross bikes, a jet ski, more than 6,000 euros in cash, a drone and computer equipment.[1]
