Moroccan drug ring uses divers to smuggle hashish to Spain

Jun 10, 2010, 10:49 GMT

Madrid - Spanish police have discovered a drug ring using divers to help bring hashish from Morocco to Spain, police said Thursday, describing the method as unprecedented.

The ring transported drug cargoes across the Mediterranean to near Estepona on the southern Spanish coast, then lowered the hashish bundles to a depth of about 20 metres on the sea bed.

Helpers in Spain sent divers to locate the drug and to mark it with a buoy. The next day, a diver attached the drug bundles to a jetski, which pulled the packages closer to the beach and then were lifted from the water.

Police arrested eight people and seized 1.6 tons of hashish, 700 kilogrammes of which were retrieved from the sea.

Morocco is the world's second-largest hashish producer after Afghanistan. Drug traffickers have traditionally used speedboats to take drug loads directly to beaches in Spain, which acts as gateway for Moroccan hashish into the European market.