The Spanish Civil Guard announced on Saturday the seizure of nearly 4.8 tons of hashish during an operation conducted in coordination with the Moroccan Royal Gendarmerie in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The operation was triggered following the detection of a “go-fast” semi-rigid boat navigating at high speed and suspected of carrying a large shipment of drugs, the Civil Guard indicated in a press release.
Spanish maritime, land, and air assets were mobilized to track the vessel. During the pursuit, the traffickers began to dispose of part of their cargo by throwing it into the sea in order to lighten the boat and increase its speed.
During this operation, 32 bales of hashish weighing approximately 1,200 kilograms were initially located and recovered.
Faced with the pressure exerted by the Spanish units, the boat continued its flight toward waters close to Morocco, leading to the activation of cooperation mechanisms between the Civil Guard and the Moroccan Royal Gendarmerie. The rapid mobilization of Moroccan maritime resources made it possible to maintain pressure on the vessel and reduce its chances of escape, the same source emphasized.
This coordinated action forced the traffickers to abandon the rest of their cargo. Moroccan maritime authorities thus recovered an additional 89 bales of hashish, with an estimated weight of 3,577 kilograms.
In total, 121 bales of hashish, representing approximately 4,777 kilograms, were seized during this operation, which falls under the permanent anti-drug trafficking measures deployed in the Campo de Gibraltar region and the security cooperation mechanisms between Morocco and Spain.
The Civil Guard highlighted that the coordination between the services of the two countries successfully thwarted the delivery of the shipment, illustrating the importance of bilateral cooperation in the fight against criminal networks operating on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar.
