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19th Aug 2018

Irish person among those arrested by Spanish police after massive drugs seizure

Paul Moore

Marbella

The criminal group was based in Marbella and Estepona.

An Irish national is among the 11 people that were arrested by the police in Spain after a massive drug seizure on a criminal group that’s based in the towns of Marbella and Estepona.

Almost seven tonnes of cannabis with a street value of nearly €18m were seized along with one kilo of cocaine, 5.4 grams of MDMA, €222,720, a firearm with cartridges, nine vehicles, 25 mobile phones, a GPS device, and various paraphernalia for manufacturing and distributing drugs.

A total of 11 people, nine men and two women, have been held after a successful outcome to an investigation that began last March when the authorities became aware that a number of people – of Moroccan and Spanish nationality – were illegally transporting drugs into Spain by sea.

Police say that the people who were arrested include British, Moroccan, Spanish and Irish citizens.

At the end of May, police investigators pursued one of the smugglers on the streets of Estepona and after catching him, they managed to arrest him and develop their case further.

In the course of the efforts to identify the other members of this criminal group, the police located a group of people from the United Kingdom and Ireland and verified that they had indeed caught the ringleader and four other members of the organisation.

As they state: “A few days ago, the agents carried out the last phase of the operation and arrested four other members of the organisation. Three arrests were made in the homes of those investigated, where a total of €10,400 was confiscated and 312 kilos of hashish were seized, among other effects.”

The police said that these people have been arrested for “their alleged involvement in a crime of drug trafficking and belonging to a criminal group.”

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