A joint operation by Spain’s National Police, the Guardia Civil and the Irish police seized 170 kg of marijuana from a lorry travelling from Alhaurín de la Torre to Ireland with twenty tonnes of lettuce.[1] The investigation had started the previous April, when the Spanish National Police received information from Ireland’s Garda warning that a network of Irish citizens settled in Málaga was exporting drugs to Ireland.[1] Officers learned an imminent shipment was planned and set up a device to stop it.[1]
Five detained before a magistrate
Four Irish men, aged 56, 45, 35 and 33, along with a 27-year-old Romanian man, were detained on 6 May and brought before a Spanish magistrate.[2] The drugs were found north-west of Málaga among pallets of lettuce in a truck destined for Ireland, following a lengthy investigation by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau with the Policia Nacional and Guardia Civil.[2] Those arrested were charged with belonging to a criminal group, drug trafficking and document forgery.[1]
Police also seized three vehicles, a trailer truck, three computers and ten mobile phones, and the twenty tonnes of lettuce were given to food banks in Lucena and Córdoba.[1] The haul was valued at 3.4 million euros.[2] Garda Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll thanked the Spanish authorities for their cooperation and said the operation had dealt another significant blow to the organised crime groups involved.[2]
