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Rabat – Spanish authorities arrested several drug smugglers disguised as divers in the Mediterranean to traffic drugs from Morocco to Europe, seizing large quantities of drugs, boats, sophisticated telecommunications devices, and GPS tracking devices.
An investigation into the Spanish police’s recent drug trafficking operation uncovered the scuba diving scheme.
The drug smugglers are drug traffickers who have settled in southern Spain and who have long been operating such affairs. The group is also made up of dozens of divers from Morocco and Spain.
The Spanish anti-drug services have been pursuing members of the drug trafficking network for several months, after noting a considerable improvement in the lifestyle of some Moroccans living in the small town of Tarifa, in southern Andalusia.
According to a Moroccan news outlet, drug traffickers urged divers that are licensed in the coastal cities of Nador and Driouch to transport or pick up the bundles of drugs at the bottom of the sea and then load them on the speedboats parked in the harbor, a little further in the waters of the Mediterranean.
The drugs are initially delivered by land to the coasts of Morocco, and are afterwards entrusted to divers who are in charge of transporting it to speedboats.
Once the boats are near the Spanish shores, the drugs, which were previously packaged in weighted barrels, are dropped into the water. Spanish divers capture the goods, and transport it to Spain using pleasure craft.
The same source said that drug traffickers are increasingly using their network to escape the vigilance of the Moroccan and Spanish authorities and anti-drug services.
Last month, Spanish authorities discovered a sophisticated piloting school for international drug smugglers, leading to the arrest of 40 people. The group’s leader mostly recruited Latin Americans and Spanish citizens as pilots and aviation mechanics, despite them having no prior experience in the field.
In May, the General Directorate for National Security (DGSN) collaborated alongside Custom officials at the Tangier-Med port, and aborted a large-scale drug trafficking operation.
