35 arrested as Spain seizes 11 tonnes of hashish in Toledo warehouses
Spanish police seized 11 tonnes of hashish smuggled from Morocco in trucks whose fuel tanks were rigged to hide the drug, and arrested 35 people in Operation Nexi. Most of the haul was found in warehouses in Toledo province, and the group moved the rest toward Madrid and on to Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands.
🇪🇸 Yeles and Villaluenga de la Sagra, Toledo province, Spain
Spanish police seized11 tonnes of hashish hidden in truck fuel tanks and
arrested 35 people in Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha, the National Police
announced on 26 December 2012.[1]Police called the operation Nexi and
described it as one of the most important of the last decade.[1]
The gang brought the hashish from Morocco in trucks, which had to refuel
constantly because the bundles of hashish left little room in the tanks.[1]The emptied tanks were rewelded in another unit and sent back to Morocco to be
loaded with hashish again.[1]The hashish was then hidden in legal merchandise
bound for Spain, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and England.[1]A part of
the hashish was sent for sale in Madrid and the rest was put into trucks with
legal goods, which were driven to Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands.[2]Most of the hashish was stored in warehouses in the central Spanish
province of Toledo, the BBC reported.[3]
One truck carried about 1,700 kg of hashish and 65 kg of marijuana among tonnes
of fresh carrots bound for France and the Netherlands, and a second, driven by
the arrested Belgian, hid 8,500 kg of drugs in branded clothing bound for
England, the police said.[1]
The 35 arrested included 31 Moroccan nationals, three Spaniards and one Belgian.[1]The investigation by the Madrid anti-drug and organised crime unit began in
March 2012 with hashish dealing detected in Leganés, Fuenlabrada and Móstoles.[1]Officers carried out 17 searches and seized 150,000 euros in cash, 14
vehicles and 109 mobile phones, among the vehicles two articulated trucks valued
at almost 400,000 euros.[1]
The Vijesti account, quoting the officials’ announcement, says the hashish was
smuggled from Morocco in tanker trucks and that those arrested belonged to one
of the largest smuggling chains on the European market.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Police gave the total as more than 11 tonnes; no exact kilogram figure was published.
One truck load is described as 8,500 kilos of drug rather than hashish specifically, so that quantity is not separated in the cannabis totals.
RTVE reports 8,500 kg of hashish found in the Toledo warehouses and also describes an 8,500 kg truck load bound for England; the reports do not make clear whether these are the same hashish.
The 65 kg of marijuana in the carrot truck is reported only by RTVE and is left out of the hashish total.
No charges or court outcome for the 35 arrested were reported.
The operation's code name appears as Nexi in Spanish media and Nessi in El País's English edition.
The 11 tonnes were seized over an operation running in phases from March 2012, so 26 December is the date the result was announced, not necessarily the date of every seizure.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in RTVE: The trucks passed through Algeciras and drove to warehouses in Yeles and Villaluenga de la Sagra, in Toledo province, where the tanks were opened and emptied.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in RTVE: The result was presented on 26 December 2012 by the National Police's director general and the central government's delegate in Madrid.
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