all residents of Malaga

Police seized 4.3 tons (4.7 US tons) of hashish in southern Portugal, and arrested four Moroccans on suspicion of drug smuggling, authorities said Friday.
Police intercepted the suspects Tuesday, in truck heading to Spain.
A search revealed 52 bales of hashish in the truck, police said in a statement. Another 88 bales were found at a remote warehouse, it said.
The suspects, all residents of Malaga, southern Spain, were in custody, the statement said.
Police said the drugs had an estimated street value of around ¤20 million (US$29 million).

cannabis intended for the European market

Some four tonnes of cannabis intended for the European market were seized by the Moroccan Royal Navy off the coast of Nador (northeast), local authorities affirmed here Monday.
The drug was concealed in a zodiac whose occupants succeeded in fleeing, the same source said, adding that security forces has already launched an international arrest warrant against traffickers.

member of the Civil Guard has been arrested in Melilla

A member of the Civil Guard has been arrested in Melilla as he was trying to board the Málaga ferry with 56 kilos of cannabis hidden in his car.
The arrest took place on Sunday night, and was carried out by his colleagues assigned to the Civil Guard in Melilla.
It happened during a routine control of vehicles waiting to board the ferry, when sniffer dogs detected the drug hidden inside the wheels of the officer’s four wheel drive vehicle.
The drugs have an estimated street value of 81,000 €.

Portugal Connection

Police said Monday they had seized 3.3 tons (3.6 U.S. tons) of hashish in Portugal, and arrested a 21-year-old Moroccan man in connection with the seizure.
Police made the arrest , after chasing a van that refused to stop in southern Portugal.
"During the chase the driver tried to hit police cars several times," leading police to fire on the van's tires to stop the vehicle, police said in a statement.
The suspect then tried to flee on foot, running 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) until captured, the statement said.
Police said the man had been headed to Spain, and had tracked the suspect and van down after investigating recent shipments of illegal drugs offloaded along the Portuguese coast.

ocean rescue boat off the Spanish coast

Spanish police on Sunday said they had seized more than four tonnes of hashish on an ocean rescue boat off the Spanish coast and arrested 15 people in the latest of a series of raids on drug trafficking rings.
In a statement police said ‘4.3 tonnes of hashish have been seized in the cabins of a small boat used for ocean rescue operations.’
The 15 people arrested were Spanish, Colombian, Romanian and Moroccan nationals, police said.
Three of them were crew members, one was the suspected head of a drug trafficking ring, and eight were suspected of trying to smuggle the drugs onto the Spanish coast
A total of 13,000 euros (18,000 dollars), two kilos (4.4 pounds) of cocaine, five inflatable boats and 15 mobile phones were also seized in the police raid, according to the statement.
Spain is Europe’s main point of entry for Moroccan cannabis and for cocaine from South America.

Cabo de Gata Nature Park

Two arrests were made as the smugglers were unloading Close to three tons of cannabis resin at San José port in the Cabo de Gata Nature Park.
Two drug smugglers were caught in the act in the early hours of Sunday.
They are 51 year old Nicolás S.M., who is from Almería and has been arrested on three previous occasions for robbery, and a Moroccan national named as Idriss B.
Ideal newspaper reports that one of the two vans seized in the Civil Guard operation turned out to be stolen from Ribarroja de Turia, in Valencia, last month.
Another two suspects managed to escape custody.

a street value of 3.7 million

A joint operation between National Police and Customs Authorities on Friday night has seized 2.5 tons of cannabis resin on a beach in Las Amoladeras, in La Manga.
Police say in a press release that ten people were arrested after a Customs helicopter spotted a suspicious-looking boat approaching the coast.
Authorities were waiting on shore, and the arrests were made at 4am: five Spaniards and five Moroccan nationals.
The drugs haul would have brought a street value of 3.7 million €.

British man is in custody after a high speed sea chase

Officers seized 109 kilos of cannabis resin carried by two jetskis when the drugs were dumped on a beach in Marbella
A British man is in custody after a high speed sea chase to the coast of Marbella on Sunday.
The Civil Guard say in a press release that the Coastguard chased two jetskis to the Río Verde Beach, and that two suspects ran off on foot after dumping their cargo of 109 kilos of cannabis on the shore.
A 35 year old Briton resident in Estepona, named as E.W. in reports, was arrested after a search by Civil Guard patrols from Estepona and Ojén.

700 million smuggled-in packs of tobacco

700 million smuggled-in packs of tobacco are sold in Spain. This merchandise comes primarily from the East through different land and sea routes, from the United States and from Andorra. It makes up ten per cent of the tobacco consumed annually in Spain, which implies a loss of 120 millions US dollars for the Spanish tobacco industry. Contraband tobacco can be found throughout Spain and is smuggled in primarily through Andalusia, Galicia and Catalonia. This tobacco traffic is controlled by large mafias dedicated to contraband goods, even of European size.

The Maltese connection

Malta is serving as a redistribution centre for drugs from South America.
Malta’s drug barons are behind bars at Kordin, cocaine worth 46 million marks destined for the Spanish market was being discovered in a container destined for the Malta Freeport.
The find included 514 kilogrammes of 90% pure cocaine and 25,000 ecstasy pills – representing a local market value of over Lm 20 million
The plan, according to German investigators, was to use yachts from Malta to ship the drugs to the Spanish mainland.
The federal criminal investigators in Germany were somehow tipped off that cocaine from Venezuela was being transhipped to Malta via Hamburg. There were 2,500 containers on the container ship Nedlloyd Kingston, The search carried out by the German and Italian police discovered 64 packages of the drug buried beneath 1,152 packs of work gloves at the rear of the container. The packages were hidden behind carbon paper, a practice that aims to render x-ray machines useless.
In a sting operation, investigators had removed the drugs and allowed the container to depart for Malta in order to apprehend those related to the case.

several arrests on the Gibraltar border

The Spanish National Police made several arrests on the Gibraltar border. One of these was a 37 year old Portuguese citizen, L.F.D.O., who was wanted by a court in Estella. Another, 44 year old J. L.C., was wanted by an Algeciras court, as was a 39 year old Gibraltarian, E.J.S. These arrests were a result of the passport controls carried out by police at the border.

840 kilos of cannabis resin in Estepona

The Civil Guard have reported a drugs haul of 840 kilos of cannabis resin in Estepona this weekend, after a suspicious boat was spotted 10 miles off shore on Saturday, and came to shore on the Playa Arroyo Vaquero. The drugs had already been loaded into a waiting vehicle when officers arrived on the beach and arrested a 28 year old man named by his initials, I.C.M. The Civil Guard said he is Spanish.

British pensioner resident in Fuengirola

British pensioner resident in Fuengirola has been taken into custody as the alleged head of the gang. He is named as A.M.T., aged 66.
The Interior Ministry said in a press release that the investigation began in Barcelona in October with the discovery of 1.2 tons of cannabis resin hidden inside computer casings. It led investigating officers to premises in Montcada i Reixac, Barcelona province, last month, where they saw a lorry being loaded up with what appeared to be industrial machinery, and also saw the suspect on site.

The Civil Guard officers found it to have a ton of cannabis resin hidden

The Civil Guard in Málaga province have released news of a drugs haul on one of the accesses into Málaga City last Friday where four people were taken into custody. Málaga Hoy newspaper said it happened during a routine Civil Guard control of routes into the provincial capital, and took place on Las Pedrizas.
The lorry pulled over was registered in Germany and was carrying a cargo of tinned foods. The Civil Guard officers found it to have a ton of cannabis resin hidden

Civil Guard swoop nets three tons of cannabis resin

A Civil Guard swoop on a warehouse in Callosa de Segura on Tuesday has seized what is reported to be more than three tons of cannabis resin and taken at least four people into custody. La Verdad newspaper said the suspects may be from Holland, and two of them appear to be the man who rented the warehouse and his father.

It’s understood he had a legal rental contract with the owner of the premises in Callosa, and had been using the premises for more than two years.
Four vehicles, two of them with Dutch plates, were also seized in the raid.

ton of cannabis resin

Four men from Roquetas de Mar are under arrest, after they were caught in the act unloading a cargo of more than a ton of cannabis resin on a beach in Balanegra on Tuesday night. The smugglers who transported the drugs to the Seto Maleno beach managed to escape out to sea.
Two of the three vehicles seized on the beach were later found to be stolen.

smuggling of cocaine into Ireland which passed through Alicante.

Spanish police arrested a number of people related to the smuggling of cocaine into Ireland which passed through Alicante.

The arrests came after an eight-month investigation into the gang's operations by the Irish Police, British police and the authorities in Spain and the Netherlands. Police sources said the gang were a major part of the wholesale organization for cocaine importation into Ireland. The gang is thought to have been responsible for the supply of drugs to gangs in Dublin and Limerick.

Senior sources said the arrests were a major blow to drug-dealers here who have been sourcing their cocaine from Spain. It should significantly reduce the amount of the drug available on the streets in Ireland for the near future.
The gang's ringleader a 40 year old Dubliner was one of the suspects being held by police in Alicante. Another man form Birmingham with Irish connections was also being held. A Venezuelan and a Hungarian woman were also in police custody. All the members of the gang were caught in the car park of the Holiday Inn in Alicante in two cars on Friday night. Between them they had almost €200,000 worth of cocaine and €30,000 in cash

British man, whose initials have been confirmed as AMT

A 66 year old British man resident in Fuengirola (Málaga) has been arrested accused of heading up a gang trafficking cannabis between Spain and the UK.
Two weeks ago, a suspicious trailer was intercepted on its way to a company that runs daily shipments to the UK. It was found to contain industrial-sized water purifiers, though police sniffer dogs later detected 2,500kg of cannabis resin hidden inside the machines. A further 1,500kg was found inside a warehouse on a Barcelona industrial estate from which the lorry had been spotted leaving.
The British man, whose initials have been confirmed as AMT, visited Cataluña regularly to ski, always staying in luxury hotels.
The investigation started last October when Guardia Civil officers seized 1,200kg cannabis found hidden inside a shipment of computer terminals, although they were unable to find sufficient evidence implicating AMT to arrest him on that occasion.