PHOTOS: Provided by the Civil Guard
The Civil Guard has culminated in the island of Lanzarote an operation called "Vendaval" in which it arrested last 26th five people from an organized group, when they were trying to introduce 630 kilos of hashish through the east coast of the island. In addition to the drugs, the agents seized a semi-rigid boat, two all-terrain vehicles, auxiliary elements for night nautical navigation, GPS devices, mobile phones and various documentation related to the investigation.
The investigations began at the end of August this year, when the Civil Guard detected that the alleged leader of this group, a man based in Lanzarote who was already being investigated, had hired the services of two people with extensive experience in driving semi-rigid boats in the area of the Strait of Gibraltar. One of them has numerous records for drug trafficking. In addition, he had a boat on the island prepared for the commission of this type of crime, according to the Civil Guard.
The agents intensified surveillance of the movements of the members of this group and of the possible boat to be used. And they suspected that they could be preparing the introduction of a significant amount of drugs on the island of Lanzarote. As a result of these police operations, the possible coastal point chosen by the alleged drug traffickers to carry out the introduction of narcotic substances was located, in this case the town of Playa Quemada, in the municipality of Yaiza.
The narcotic substance would be previously transported from some point on the coast of Morocco to a point in the high seas previously agreed, where they would carry out the transfer of illicit substances, to later, "and taking advantage of the night hours, proceed to its landing on the beach, where other members of the group would be responsible for its reception and transport in all-terrain vehicles".
The alleged drug traffickers watched the investigators
According to the Civil Guard, the operation was also hampered by the work to which the investigators were subjected, who were "watched by the members of the aforementioned drug trafficking group". Finally, once the place where the possible landing was going to be carried out was delimited, a surveillance operation was deployed during the early morning of October 26.
It was made up of more than twenty troops, who were following in situ the activities that the investigated could practice in the moments prior to the landing, all in order to avoid possible escapes from the place and arrest the members of the group at the time of the drug landing.
Thus, after unloading the drugs, three of the members of the group were arrested at the scene and this narcotic substance was seized. At the same time, surveillance control was carried out on the boat, and its two crew members were subsequently arrested when docking at the nearby Puerto de Marina Rubicón.
The investigation has been carried out by members of the Organized Crime Team of the Canary Islands, supported by agents from the territorial units of the Civil Guard in Lanzarote. The detainees, together with the narcotic substance seized, have been placed at the disposal of the corresponding Court, on guard duty, of the town of Arrecife.