Police smash drug-trafficking gang operating in Granada and Almeria provinces

Zoom

Ten people have been arrested and 72 bales of hashish with a total weight of almost 3,000 kilos, a modified shotgun, two handguns, an air gun and seven vehicles have been seized

C. L.

Friday, 24 April 2026, 11:43

Customs surveillance of the Spanish tax office and the Guardia Civil have broken up a trafficking gang in Granada and Almeria provinces. As a result of the operation ten people have been arrested and 72 bales of hashish with a total weight of almost 3,000 kilos, a modified shotgun, two small arms, an air gun and seven vehicles have been seized.

The officers became aware that a criminal gang was trafficking large quantities of hashish using high-speed boats and then storing it in safe places along Granada province's Costa Tropical. Then in December 2025 an investigation was launched to try to identify the people behind the crime.

In mid-March, surveillance cameras detected a fast-moving vessel approaching the coast and investigators set up a joint operation to try to intercept it. The boat made landfall on a beach in the eastern part of Granada province where gang members began to unload the bundles into several vehicles. They fled after seeing the police patrols.

Subsequently, with the help of the citizen security units, a raid was carried out on a premises that the gang was using to store the drugs and four members of the organisation were arrested.

Weapons found

In total seven searches were carried out, five of them in Granada province and two in Almeria province, both in the homes of the suspects and in warehouses, farms and storage rooms used by the gang to store the drugs and vehicles used for transport. A total of 72 bales of hashish were seized in these searches, with a total weight of almost 3,000 kilos and six people were arrested.

Furthermore, three weapons were found in searches on vehicles, one of them a modified shotgun loaded with ammunition and a cartridge and two handguns, also with ammunition, one of them with another cartridge ready to be used.

In addition, as part of the investigation into assets linked to money laundering, the freezing of various movable and immovable assets used by the gang, valued at more than 500,000 euros, has been requested.

High-speed vessels

The gang was bringing the drugs from Morocco to Spain in high-speed boats, landing them on the coast of Granada, keeping them hidden for some time and then transporting them to Europe camouflaged in different forms of transport, from where they were sold.

In total, ten people have been arrested for an alleged crime of drug trafficking, membership of a criminal organisation, illegal possession of weapons, theft and use of a motor vehicle and falsification of a public document, five of them having been remanded in custody.

The seizure of hashish made in this operation is one of the largest on the Costa Tropical by high-speed boats in recent years. The investigation has been carried out by the Granada Operational Unit of the Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the Organised Crime and Anti-Drugs Team of the Judicial Police Organic Unit of the Granada Command of the Civil Guard, with the collaboration of the Regional Centre for Analysis and Intelligence against Drug Trafficking (CRAIN) of the Guardia Civil.

For more crime news click here.