Customs officers from Spain’s Tax Agency stopped two drug-smuggling boats in the Strait of Gibraltar on 19 and 21 December 2020 and recovered a total of 114 bales of hashish weighing about 3,750 kilograms.[1]
The first operation took place on the night of 19 December, when a Customs Surveillance patrol boat based in Algeciras spotted a rigid-hulled inflatable boat believed to be carrying drugs.[1] The crew jettisoned 31 bales into the sea to lighten the vessel and escaped; officers recovered the bales, with a gross weight of around 983 kilograms.[1]
Two days later, on 21 December, officers intercepted a 12-metre inflatable boat with three outboard engines after it jettisoned almost its entire cargo.[1] Officers boarded and seized the boat, arrested its four crew members, three Spanish men and one Moroccan man, and recovered 83 bales weighing about 2,765 kilograms.[1] The detainees, the seized boat and the drugs were handed over to the courts.[1]
