The Guardia Civil have dismantled two drugs trafficking organisations based in Tarragona. Fifty-one people have been arrested in various regions of Spain, including the Balearics.
Both investigations began last year, when investigators suspected that hashish was being trafficked from Andalusia to the Catalan coast. There were two operations, Maius and Drift, and these gathered information in Tarragona province and on the Costa Dorada in particular.
The Maius operation was directed at a gang which acted like a service and logistics company, allowing other organisations to bring in hashish. There were links to gangs in Andalusia, Catalonia, Extremadura and Galicia as well as in Portugal.
This led to the arrest of 19 people in Tarragona and Algeciras. Five so-called 'narcoboats', valued at 900,000 euros, and 2,275 kilos of hashish valued at 4.5 million were seized.
The Drift operation resulted in the arrest of the person mainly responsible for hashish trafficking in Catalonia over the past year. He and his organisation were bringing hashish into Spain and then forwarding it to other European countries. This gang had a nautical mechanic in charge of preparing narcoboats to go to north Africa.
Thirty arrests were made in Alicante, Barcelona, Murcia, Tarragona and the Balearics. A further two people were arrested in France. More than 5,700 kilos of hashish with a value of 19 million euros were seized.