Spanish customs seize 19 tonnes of hashish in five operations
Spain's Tax Agency seized about 19 tonnes of hashish in five customs operations between 23 and 25 April 2008, including a 6-tonne sailing yacht intercepted 101 miles off Alicante. Thirty-five people were detained across the operations in Alicante, Murcia, Valencia and Girona; the fifth seizure, in Almería, led to no arrests.
🇪🇸 Alicante, Murcia, Valencia, Girona and Almería coasts · Spain
Spain’s Tax Agency seized about 19 tonnes of hashish in five customs operations carried out
between 23 and 25 April 2008, three times the amount seized in the same period of the
previous year.[1]
The largest single seizure came in the early hours of 25 April, when the customs patrol
vessel Arao boarded the 16.5-metre Spanish-flagged sailing yacht Burbuja 101 miles off
Alicante in international waters.[1]The yacht carried 200 bales of hashish weighing around
6,000 kilos; two Spaniards, a Moroccan and two Russian women were arrested.[1]
On 23 April, officers seized a four-engined rigid-hulled boat with 143 bales (4,460 kilos)
at La Manga del Mar Menor in Murcia, detaining eight people.[1]The same day in Les Deveses,
Valencia, police and customs seized a lorry and a boat carrying 4,000 kilos and arrested eight
people: two Cubans, a Spaniard and five Moroccans.[1]In the early hours of 24 April, a joint
operation in Lloret de Mar, Girona, netted 3,300 kilos and a high-speed boat, with 14 arrests
so far.[1]Also on 24 April, a vehicle and a boat with 1,000 kilos were seized on a beach in
Níjar, Almería, with no arrests reported.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Guardia Civil officers in Segovia dismantled a clandestine marijuana plantation hidden in a greenhouse near El Espinar after neighbours reported a strong smell of cannabis. Two local residents were placed under investigation for alleged drug-trafficking cultivation, and officers seized 8.05 kg of plant material.
The Guardia Civil investigated a man in Aguilar de la Frontera, Córdoba, after a neighbour reported being threatened with a short firearm; he handed over an air pistol. Officers then found eight cannabis plants, about 1.60 metres tall, grown inside his home, with buds weighing 920 grams, and put the file before a court.
Guardia Civil officers intercepted a parcel holding 15.9 kilos of hashish resin at a transport company near Asturias airport, then arrested the 37-year-old Seville man who flew in to collect it in a simulated delivery. A judge sent him to prison on 6 November 2026.
Mossos d'Esquadra found a fully equipped forest camp in Figuerola del Camp holding more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana buds ready for sale. No arrests were reported and the investigation to identify those behind the site remains open.
