Agencia Tributaria seizes more than 8,000 kilos of hashish in Ibiza

As Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera advanced in its edition last Monday, the Paiño boat arrived at the port of Ibiza next to another patrol boat to transport the more than 8,000 kilos of hashish distributed in dozens of bales that were unloaded at a point on the coast of Sant Joan by semi-rigid fast boats. The drug was intervened and transferred to the port of Ibiza last Monday.

As reported on Wednesday from the Tax Agency, agents of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency in Ibiza, in the framework of a coastal control operation, intervened 8,300 kilos of hashish during the early hours of Monday, after hunting in flagrante delicto an organization that transported the drug in vehicles involved in a cache made in the northern part of the island. This is the largest historical seizure of hashish made in the Balearic Islands to date, according to reports.

Customs Surveillance officials were developing a ground patrol surveillance along the coast of Ibiza, when they detected three large-capacity vans and storage circulating, almost without lights, by a road that connects Sant Joan de Labritja with one of the coves of this municipality.

The drivers of the three vans, upon detecting the Customs police vehicle, braked sharply, causing a collision between them, and the occupants began to flee through the forest.

Immediately, upon indications of a narcotics cache operation on the beach, the Customs patrol requested support from all Customs Surveillance units, who rushed to the scene and began raiding the area to discover those involved.

Investigations remain open, and arrests are not ruled out in the coming days.

The three vans involved were loaded with a large number of burlap bales, of those commonly used for the traffic of hashish by sea. Together, the agents seized a total of 216 hashish packages, with a gross weight of approximately 8,300 kilos of hashish.

Researchers are considering the possibility that the criminal organization used the island of Ibiza as a temporary reception point for the drug, for later redistribution to other parts of the European continent.

Historical seizure in the Balearic Islands

This apprehension is the largest cache of this type of narcotic substance seized in the history of the Balearic Islands, surpassing the intervention of the boat 'Sol de España', intercepted in 2001 in Cala Ratjada, and carrying 7,700 kilos of hashish.

This performance in Ibiza coincides temporarily with the apprehension in Mallorca of two more bales of 35 kilos during the afternoon of Sunday 22 October, which were discovered floating on the coast of Andratx and recovered by the patrol boat 'Paiño' of the Customs Surveillance Service.

Moreover, it is worth recalling the similarity of this seizure with the cache of 875 kilos of hashish seized by the Combined Customs Surveillance Unit of Ibiza in February this year in the north of Ibiza, in a police operation of similar characteristics.

Recent arrests indicate an increase in the activity of criminal organizations that smuggle hashish from North Africa in the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands, usually using high-speed semi-rigid pneumatic boats.