SNIFFED OUT: Drug gang of eight people who hid weed and hash in cases of garlic arrested on Spain’s Costa del Sol and in Cordoba

POLICE have sniffed out a drugs smuggling gang who hid cannabis in shipments of garlic.

Officers arrested eight people, based in Cordoba and Benalmadena and led by a Dutch citizen of Moroccan origin.

They stashed the illicit substances in cases of the vegetable, which were then sent from two warehouses in Cordoba to the Netherlands.

Guardia Civil officers got a whiff that something illegal was going on when Dutch law enforcement seized 2,800 kilos of hashish and 157 kilos of marijuana in two operations in June 2019.

Intelligence was passed on to Spain where police launched an investigation.

It was not long before police traced the scent of the criminals and started a surveillance operation, codenamed Garlicor.

The trail led investigators to two rented storage units in Cordoba and a property in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol.

During the two raids police seized 175 kilos of hashish and 61 kilos of marijuana, €4,970 in cash and three vehicles.

Police arrested eight people of Spanish, Dutch and Moroccan origin.