In early February 2024, officers from the Civil Guard’s maritime service in Granada were alerted to a suspicious vessel off the coast and found it with four people on board, plus four more people on shore unloading what looked like bales of hashish.[1] As the officers approached, they intercepted the boat, but all eight people escaped, abandoning both the bales and the van meant to carry them.[1] In total the officers seized more than 1,800 kilograms of hashish, valued at over 3.7 million euros.[1]

Customs officers from the Tax Agency in Motril and the Civil Guard’s judicial police unit in Almuñécar took charge of tracking down the fugitives.[1] Analysis of the spot where the detainees had abandoned the stash produced the first evidence putting investigators on their trail.[1]

Two men aged 29 and 30 were finally identified and arrested as alleged perpetrators of offences against public health, membership of a criminal organisation and forgery, including using another person’s identity to hire the van.[1] A 31-year-old woman was also brought before the courts as the alleged author of a document forgery offence, for drawing up the van’s lease knowing the signatory was not the person named in it.[1]