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A 69-year-old British man has been arrested in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in northern Africa after he was caught attempting to smuggle nearly 63 kilograms of hashish hidden in the roof of his vehicle.

 

The drugs were discovered on Sunday afternoon, July 13, as the man prepared to board the ferry from Ceuta to Algeciras in the south of mainland Spain.

 

The hashish, which was packed in blocks bearing brand names such as Dream Gelato and Cereal Milk, was concealed in a double bottom in the vehicle’s roof. Despite the man’s attempts to evade detection, trained police dogs detected the presence of narcotics, leading to a full search of the UK-registered vehicle.

 

Officers uncovered the concealed hashish and arrested the driver at the scene. This arrest is part of a wider pattern observed by the Guardia Civil in recent months.

 

So far this year, nearly 100 people have been detained for drug trafficking at the port of Ceuta, and almost three tonnes of hashish have been seized. Authorities estimate the street value of these drugs to be around €6 million, marking a significant disruption to the illegal trade that relies heavily on this strategic gateway across the Strait of Gibraltar.

 

The port of Ceuta has become a key transit point for traffickers attempting to move hashish from Moroccan plantations into mainland Europe. As controls have tightened, smugglers have resorted to increasingly creative methods, from using vehicles with hidden compartments to repurposing ambulances and company vans.

 

Authorities believe that many of those arrested, like the British man, are often drawn into smuggling due to financial hardship, drug dependency or gambling addiction, all factors that organised crime networks are known to exploit.

 

While detection methods continue to improve, including the use of trained sniffer dogs and increased surveillance, groups of smugglers also adapt their methods, for example attempting to mask the odour of the drugs and timing their crossings to coincide with periods when border staff numbers are reduced.

 

The vehicle involved in Sunday’s incident has been impounded and the suspect has been brought before the courts, facing charges related to public health offences.

 

Images: Guardia Civil