Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)OVER a dozen Brits, including at least one pensioner, have been arrested in a huge Spanish drugs swoop.
The group of 13 – including four women – were picked up for selling ecstacy and cannabis on the Costa Blanca and the party island of Ibiza.
Spanish police seized 53,000 ecstasy pills and 100 cannabis plants during the swoop.
The gang, who all come from Liverpool, are accused of producing and distributing the “designer” drugs from a base in Alicante.
They are also suspected of links to money laundering and identity fraud.
Investigators said one gang member was arrested as he tried to smuggle thousands of ecstasy pills from the port of Denia to suppliers in Ibiza hidden in the doors of a car.
The rest of the group were captured in the Torrevieja area of the Costa Blanca on September 27.
Vehicles, mobile phones and cash were also confiscated, along with some cocaine found on the premises.
The 13 remain in custody following their arrest in conjunction with the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).
Ken Gallagher of Soca said: “This criminal gang was treating the UK as a distribution centre for the drugs they peddled in Spain.”
He said the group were “harming not only the British community and holidaymakers in Spain but also harming the UK itself through their extended drug dealing”.
I know this is an English news website, but it’s boring continually reading about British and Irish drug gangs. There are just as many Spanish drug gangs operating, indeed one can read about them each week in the Spanish press.
If we legalised these drugs, there would be no news about them at all! That is the way to go with this issue, just like our neighbours Portugal have done. In Portugal HIV cases have gone down, overall drug use has gone down, and so too has overall drug-related crime. Sensible policies by the Portugese and Spain needs to follow.