Moroccan-Spanish Security Operation Intercepts Helicopter Smuggling Drugs

The Spanish Civil Guard coordinated today with Moroccan authorities to bust a drug trafficking network that used skilled pilots to conduct night flights with helicopters and import cannabis resin drugs from Morocco to Spain.

Rabat – The Spanish Civil Guard coordinated today with Moroccan authorities to bust a drug trafficking network that used skilled pilots to conduct night flights with helicopters and import cannabis resin drugs from Morocco to Spain.

In a statement, the Spanish Civil Guard said that The operation seized two of these helicopters and about 800 kilograms of cannabis resin, the Spanish Civil guard said in a statement, noting that the joint security operation also arrested nine people, among them “pilots who are experts in night and low-altitude flights.”

Investigators discovered early on January 15 that a helicopter was leaving southern Spain and traveling toward Morocco at a very low altitude without lights.

Meanwhile, the Moroccan Royal Gendarmerie detected the helicopter as it entered Moroccan airspace, where it remained for “a few minutes” before returning to Spain. The helicopter was intercepted when it landed “on a farm located in the town of Chiclana de la Frontera,” the statement said.

The Spanish Civil Guard reported in its statement that five people were taken into custody after officials discovered 30 parcels of narcotic drugs inside the helicopter. One member of the network died in a car crash while trying to flee the scene at full speed.

Investigators arrested the remaining four suspects later on at a farm in a town near Seville, where they landed the second helicopter, the statement added.

The Spanish security said that the network bought the helicopters from Eastern European countries and had their back seats removed so that they could carry up to 900 kilograms of narcotics per flight.