• Five people arrested in two operations, carried out on the same day and which are part of the use of the AP-7 as a fast route for sending hashish from the south of Spain and Levante to the rest of Europe
• Two pistols, a revolver, ammunition, 34,000 euros in cash and two vacuum packing machines were seized, as well as a van and a truck with false bottoms for hiding and transporting the hashish.

April 25, 2024.- Officials of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency have seized 848 kilos of hashish in two independent operations carried out on April 5 in the towns of Badalona (Barcelona) and Figueres (Girona). Five people have been arrested as a result of these actions, which are part of the use of the AP-7 motorway as a fast route for the shipment of hashish in vehicles with double bottoms from the south of Spain and Levante to the rest of Europe.

The first intervention was carried out in the early hours of the morning in Badalona by the Barcelona Customs Surveillance Unit, in the operation called 'Brasero'.

The investigation began at the beginning of last December following the seizure of three shipments, bound for Italy and sent under false identities, which contained, hidden in industrial ovens, more than 37 kilos of hashish and 12 kilos of marijuana.

The investigations carried out allowed both the identification of the real senders and the location of the place where the shipments were prepared.

With the authorization of the Investigating Court number 2 of Badalona, on April 5, two homes where the narcotic substance was stored for later shipment were entered and searched, and two people of Italian nationality and two others of Moroccan nationality were arrested.

During the searches, 430 kilos of hashish, two pistols, a revolver, ammunition, 34,000 euros in cash, two vacuum packing machines and a van with a false bottom that had been used to transport the hashish were seized.

Intervention in Girona

The second operation was carried out by officers from the Girona Customs Surveillance Service, who had set up a checkpoint at exit 4 of the AP-7, at the entrance to the municipality of Figueres, in which several trucks carrying goods were inspected to check documentation and loads, as well as to carry out visual inspections of the interior of the trailers.

One of the trucks inspected, whose tractor head had a Moroccan license plate and the trailer a Spanish license plate, raised the suspicions of the officers due to the nervous and evasive attitude of the driver and the absence of cargo on the trailer. The truck driver said he came from Algeciras and was heading to France to load containers.

The officers proceeded to examine the trailer carefully and located a hidden compartment, a double bottom, inside which they found ten bales of hashish weighing 381 kilos. The truck driver was immediately arrested and brought before the Figueres duty court along with the seized material.

In both operations, the Customs Surveillance investigators of the Tax Agency suspect that the hashish was going to be unloaded in Catalonia, where part of the drug would remain and the rest would be destined for northern Europe.

The five detainees have been placed at the disposal of the court, with four of them being remanded in custody.