A record 8,300 kilos of hashish seized in Ibiza

Operation of the Tax Agency against drug trafficking

• Agents of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency discovered three vans transporting the drugs in the early morning after settling in a creek in the north of the island

• The drug traffickers, when detecting the Customs vehicle, stopped sharply, causing a clash between the vans, and they started to escape

• Recent apprehensions indicate an increase in the activity of criminal organisations that introduce hashish from North Africa, usually by means of high-speed semi-rigid pneumatic boats

25 October 2023 .- Agents of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency in Ibiza, as part of a coastal control operation, seized 8,300 kilos of hashish in the early morning from 22 to 23 October, after discovering in anti a frightful organisation that it carried the drugs in vehicles involved in a warehouse in the northern part of the island. This is the largest historic seizure of hashish carried out in the Balearic Islands to date.

Customs Surveillance officials were developing surveillance on the land patrol along the coast of Ibiza, when they detected three large vans and storage, almost without lights on a road that links Sant Joan de Labrtja with one of the coves of this municipality.

The drivers of the three vans, when the Customs police vehicle was detected, stopped sharply, causing a clash between them, and the occupants started to escape through the forest.

Immediately, in light of the indications of a drug trade at the beach, the Customs patrol requested support from all Customs Surveillance units, which urgently attended the site and started to carry out strikes in the area to discover those involved in the events.

Investigations are still open and no arrests are dropped in the next few days.

The three vans seized were loaded with a large number of bags of harpoons, commonly used for the traffic of hashish by sea. All together, the agents seized a total of 216 bags of hashish with an approximate gross weight of 8,300 kilos of hashish.

Researchers are considering the possibility that the criminal organisation will use the island of Ibiza as a point of temporary drug reception for subsequent redistribution to other parts of the European continent.

Historic seizure in the Balearic Islands

This seizure is the largest ally of this type of narcotic substance seized in the history of the Balearic Islands, thus exceeding the intervention of the "Sun of Spain," intercepted in 2001 in Cala Ratjada, and transporting 7,700 kilos of hashish.

This action in Ibiza coincides temporarily with the arrest in Majorca of two other 35 kilos of bales on Sunday afternoon, 22 October, which were discovered floating on the coast of Andratx and recovered by the "Paiño" patrol of the Customs Surveillance Service.

It is worth recalling the similarity of this seizure with the 875 kilos of hashish seized by the Customs Surveillance Unit of Ibiza in February of the same year in northern Ibiza in a police operation with similar characteristics.

Recent apprehensions indicate an increase in the Mediterranean and Balearic Islands in the activity of criminal organisations that introduce hashish from North Africa, usually through high-speed semi-rigid pneumatic boats.