The Guardia Civil, in a joint operation with the Tax Agency's Customs department, have seized 46 bundles containing 1,640kg of the narcotic substance hashish, after receiving an anonymous tip that there was a possible suspicious boat very close to the coast of Tenerife.
The surveillance units checked it out and verified there was a boat where they were informed there would be one, so the Guardia Civil activated their Helicopter Unit, the Provincial Maritime Service, GEAS (Specialists in Underwater Activities), which with the support of a DAVA vessel from the Customs Service, managed to intercept a Zodiac type boat 15 miles from the coast.
In order to locate the suspicious vessel, the Guardia Civil helicopter flew over the entire area to spot it from the air and gave the boat's coordinates to the Maritime Units to intercept it.
After several attempts to escape by the occupants of the boat, and once they were surrounded, they began to throw several of the bales of hashish that they were transporting into the sea.
However, agents were able to intercept them and proceeded to arrest the three occupants of the boat, two men aged 32 and 36 and a teenager under the age of 16, all three of Moroccan nationality, charged with drug trafficking.
Once taken into custody, the bales that had been thrown into the sea by the defendants were retrieved from the water, and the arrest ended with 46 bundles containing a total of 1,640kg of hashish.
The detainees have been placed at the disposal of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Investigative Court, along with the proceedings conducted by the Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Team (EDOA) of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Guardia Civil and DAVA staff.
