An organisation that tried to smuggle 3,000 kilos of hashish into Girona using sailboats is broken up

Combined operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• Seven people have been arrested in the province of Girona, of five different nationalities, and two sailing boats have been seized, which were used to load the drugs in the waters off Ibiza and transport them to the mainland coast.
• The property used by the organisation to receive the hashish had its own jetty and also housed a marijuana plantation, which has been dismantled.
• This is the largest seizure of hashish in sailing boats in the province of Girona in the last decade, in a context of renewed use of the Catalan coastline for the smuggling of this drug.

April 28th, 2023.- Customs Surveillance officers from the Tax Agency and agents from the National Police, as part of a joint investigation, have dismantled an organisation that tried to introduce 3,000 kilos of hashish into Girona by means of sailing boats.Seven people have been arrested in the province of Girona, of five different nationalities, and two sailing boats have been seized, which were used to load the drugs in the waters off Ibiza and transport them to the mainland coast.

The property used by the organisation to receive the hashish had its own jetty and also housed a marijuana plantation, which, together with another located in a different property, was also seized.

The operation started at the end of last year.Customs Surveillance in Girona starts the investigation into a criminal group that could be introducing hashish in the area of Santa Margarida (Roses).The investigation focused on a series of citizens of different nationalities who travelled in pleasure boats to the south of Ibiza, where they received a large quantity of hashish which they subsequently unloaded at the mooring of a private house in the town of Girona.

It was then that, through the Intelligence Centre against Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO), a joint investigation began to be coordinated between the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance Service and the National Police.

Nursery' with its own jetty

In order to carry out its illegal activity, the organisation chose a location that made the investigators' work difficult.This was a residential area with canals, where the houses have their own jetty that is only accessible from the houses.In addition, they are usually inhabited by temporary residents and tourists of different nationalities.This high turnover and the characteristics of the dwellings made the detection of the members of the organisation more complex.

Investigations revealed that the organisation was going to go out to sea after Easter.Customs Surveillance officers in Girona, with the support of the Customs Surveillance Reaction and Intervention Group of Catalonia, organised a waiting operation that lasted from the arrival of the sailing boat, at midday on 12 April, until the early hours of 13 April, when they saw that the suspects were loading the bales of hashish into a van and decided to intervene.

The persons under investigation had been observed entering and exiting the boat to and from the house, using front devices with lights in order to minimally illuminate the area, which was in complete darkness.Once the bales had been transferred from the boat to the house, they placed the van at the door and proceeded to load it.

At that point, Customs Surveillance investigators arrested three people, after rescuing one of them, who had jumped into the water in an attempt to escape.

In the ensuing proceedings, four other persons were arrested and 75 bales of hashish weighing 2,854 kilos of narcotics were seized.A second sailing boat that the organisation had intended to use for transport, but which was finally discarded as a result of a breakdown, was also seized.

864 marijuana plants seized

In the search of the house, which had been used for the stash, a marijuana plantation was also found, an unusual occurrence for them to be set up in the same property used to store hashish.In subsequent house searches, another plantation was seized.

In total, 75 bales of hashish, 864 marijuana plants, two sailboats and a van were seized.The seven detainees (two German nationals, a Colombian, a Frenchman, two Spaniards and a Romanian) have been handed over to the 6th Examining Magistrate's Court in Figueres, which has been investigating the case.

The large quantity of hashish seized in this operation represents the largest seizure of this drug in the province of Girona that has been introduced by sea with recreational boats in the last decade, in a context in which the Catalan coastline is once again being used for hashish shipments.

The action, coordinated through the Intelligence Centre against Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO), was carried out by the Combined Customs Surveillance Units of Girona and Cadiz and the National Police.

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