ARCHIVED - More than 200 police in major operation against drug trafficking in Bahia de Cadiz and La LÃnea
The Bahía de Cádiz, the northern towns of the province and the town of La Línea are those most frequently involved in hashish trafficking
More than 200 agents of the National Police and customs took part in a series of early morning raids in various towns in Cádiz to dismantle one of the most active hashish trafficking organizations in the province.
Police sources have indicated that the operation, called "Zambra -Rute", was deployed in towns along the Bay of Cádiz, the Northwest Coast and La Línea de la Concepción.
The investigation and the police actions within it are subject to a judicial secrecy order and are being coordinated by the Investigating Court number 1 of Rota and the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of Jerez de la Frontera.
This is part of wide-ranging project within the Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar of the Secretary of State for Security, which is attempting to completely dismantle one of the most active trafficking organizations in Spain, involved in the importation of large quantities of hashish.
On Monday 30 people were detained in another operation in Cádiz in which 28 properties were searched, the majority of them in Sanlúcar (20), six in Chipiona, one in El Puerto and one in Jerez.
In that set of raids, more than 50,000 euros in cash was seized, along with various boats and launches, several vehicles and more than three tons of hashish.
Huge quantities of hashish are brought into Spain from the African coastline across the Strait of Gibraltar, which is the shortest crossing point from Africa.
The drugs enter in a variety of ways,mainly by speedboat, and are landed along the coast. Although the customs services are extremely active and patrol boats are involved in drug chases almost every night, the scale of the operations is vast and drug traffickers so confident that drugs are even run into tourist beaches in broad daylight.
It’s impossible to monitor the vast Spanish coastline and the many thousands of leisure craft at sea at any given moment, and with huge sums of money at stake, smugglers are extremely active, with many highly organised, well-funded and ruthless gangs involved in the drug trade across Spain.