A Valencia Province gang ran a major drugs export business taking supplies to France on refrigerated lorries owned by one their group members.

11 people of different nationalities have been arrested by the Guardia Civil.

The criminal enterprise was based in Oliva.

Guardia seizures included 25 bank accounts with over €280,000 in them.

Cash Galore
CASH GALORE

44 vehicles, motorbikes, refrigerated lorries and a yacht were also impounded.

23 properties in the Oliva area valued at €5 million have been judicially blocked.

Officers removed a drone, GPS devices, satellite phones, a vacuum packaging machine, and a multitude of mobile phones in ten searches in Oliva as well as Els Poblets in Alicante Province.

Stashes of cocaine, hashish and marijuana were also taken away.

Raids took place in five homes, as well as in warehouses and two units belonging to a furniture storage company.

The Guardia Civil also boarded a yacht moored at Oliva’s yacht club that had hidden compartments to store drugs.

The vessel would sail in from Ibiza and Formentera with hashish for onward distribution.

Oliva Yacht Inspection
YACHT DISCOVERY

The nine-month Guardia operation started after suspicions were raised that the owner of a perishable goods trucking firm was using his fleet to take drugs into France.

One of the gang members, a driver, was stopped by French authorities at Montpellier.

His vehicle had over 390 kilos of hashish and 100 kilos of vacuum-packed marijuana hidden in a false bottom.

A second driver was subsequently pulled over by the Guardia on the AP-7 motorway but he tried to give them the slip.

He was caught and 250 kilos of hashish was found in his lorry.

The gang members were also supplied with mobile phone cards with bogus foreign names to help them cover up what they were doing.

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