There are records in towns such as Rubí, Cerdanyola, Canovelles, Terrassa, Cabrils or Sant Adrià and about a dozen arrests are expected
The Mossos d’Esquadra and the civil Guard They activated an operation against a criminal organization that introduces hashish coming from Morocco in catalan territory. The researchers are registering addresses of various towns in the metropolitan area. There are police entries in Ruby, Cerdanyola, Canovelles, Terrassa, cabrils either Sant Adria, among other municipalities. Several arrests are planned, about a dozen.
Among the points that the agents have entered by court order are places where the organization kept the semi-rigid boats that they used to transport hashish from international waters off the Catalan coast.
The Catalan coast, as warned by the police forces, has become a gateway used more and more frequently by criminal networks to introduce Moroccan hashish into the European continent, taking advantage of Catalonia’s proximity to France. The clearest notice of this new phenomenon came on February 5, when the Mossos surprised – thanks to the warning of witnesses – a foreign gang unloading more than 5 tons of hashish in the port of Mataró. More than fifteen people were then arrested in an operation, dubbed ‘beijing‘, which is still open.
In 2022, the police forces have already arrested three fishermen from Tarragona who had started working for the hash mafia and they dismantled a network of shipowners Girona nautical that manufactured custom boat boats. The marijuana ‘boom’ continues to be the main threat for Catalonia and for the entire Mediterranean arc of the Iberian Peninsula, but the growth of groups that traffic hashish is increasingly worrying.
Unlike what happens with marijuana – which the mafias grow on Catalan soil and then export it to the rest of Europe where its value multiplies exponentially – hashish is not produced in Catalonia. The organizations only use the beaches of the provinces of Girona, Barcelona and, above all, Tarragona, to introduce African merchandise on European soil. The Ebro Delta and its surroundings, for example, offer an extension of many kilometers of uninhabited beach, ideal for hashish traffickers, as has historically happened in Campo de Gibraltar, in the south of the peninsula.
predatory phase
The authorities warn that criminal hashish trafficking organizations, as other mafias dedicated to the cultivation and export of of marijuanathey have already started to activate their phase as well “parasitic“. This phase, according to Catalan police analysts, consists of corrupting normal citizens to work for them.
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Just like what happened with the fishermen of Tarragona. Or with the shipowners from Empuriabrava (Girona) arrested in the fall of 2022, who had started working for drug traffickers building the narcolanchas to order. In this joint operation of Mossos and Civil Guard in collaboration with the Tax agency, stopped at 19 people and there was at least two owners of rental or repair business of vessels involved and also a mechanicwho was the one who assembled the RIBs.
Agreement with Ports of the Generalitat
Last week, the Generalitat signed an operational protocol between the Mossos and Ports de la Generalitat -the body in charge of managing Catalan marinas and fishing ports- aimed at improving communication between the police force and the dock guards located in the maritime infrastructures. In other words, the Ministry of the Interior and Ports undertake to work together to guarantee the safety and protection of some facilities, the ports, whose safety is key to prevent, among other illegal activities, drug trafficking.