New Games

Spain's National Police and Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) have together broken up a ring of drugs traffickers operating in the two countries, and have confiscated 1,230kg of hashish.

According to a statement released today by the government of the Basque Country, operation 'Alima' has resulted in the arrest of seven people, six of them in Poole Harbour and the other in Vitoria.

Police launched a surveillance operation on February 5th and watched a lorry pull into the Júndiz industrial estate in Vitoria and make contact with the occupants of an Audi with British number plates. Two men carried out a search of the lorry's cab, making the driver stand at the back of the vehicle where he was covered in a sack.

The lorry was then driven by one of the two men to a warehouse on the nearby Asteguieta industrial estate, where the Audi was already waiting.

The lorry was allegedy loaded with the narcotics at this warehouse by five or six British people.

The lorry then made its way to the port of Santander, taking a number of roundabout routes on the way to avoid standard police controls, whilst unwittingly still under police surveillance.

The lorry then boarded a ferry bound for Poole Harbour and the surveillance operation was taken over by British police officers.

Once in British waters, SOCA officers intercepted the lorry and its occupants and found 915kg of hashis in a hidden compartment.

Six people were arrested there and then in Poole harbour, whilst a seventh person was arrested simultaneously at the warehouse in Asteguieta by the Policia Nacional.

Source Think Spain