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Date Published: 11/02/2022

ARCHIVED - Drug smugglers fake killer whale attack in Spain

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Police have broken up a drug smuggling operation that made fake boat accident calls to maritime rescue in order to shift hashish from Morocco to Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Drug smugglers fake killer whale attack in Spain

Spanish police have busted a drug ring that allegedly faked sailing boat accidents, including one involving a killer whale attack, to smuggle hashish from Morocco to the southern region of Andalucía in the south of Spain.

The gang are said to have loaded the drugs onto yachts and sailboats in Morocco and when they arrived in Spanish waters “would fake a breakdown or accident and request maritime assistance to be towed to port”, according to police.

After having been ‘rescued’ by maritime services and towed to shore in Spain, the boats would then unload their illicit cargo clandestinely.

In one such fake accident in June of last year, the gang even called for help from the Spanish coastguard “after having allegedly suffered an attack by orcas while crossing the strait of Gibraltar.”

Police believe this claim was a failed attempt by the boat’s owner to “shift the focus” of investigators from the “suspicious movements” it made while at sea.

Orca attacks on boats are nothing new in Spain, both in the Strait of Gibraltar off Andalucía and in the Atlantic on Span’s northern coast, which explains why the drug smugglers used what would otherwise seem like an outlandish excuse to cover their tracks.

Police have reported that once in Spain, the group would transfer the hashish in “small quantities” to a storage room somewhere in the province of Cádiz, from where it was then shipped out of the country.

Two people have been arrested and 172kg of drugs seized, as well as more than 63,000 euros.

Now read: French gang that used helicopters to smuggle drugs dismantled in Malaga

Image: Archive

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