Agents of the Elx Local Police were patrolling the Elche area of Valverde on June 12 when they ran into two vans whose five occupants, seeing the police vehicle, fled on foot. In the abandoned vehicles, the agents found one hundred bales containing 3,500 kilograms of hashish. Everything indicated that the drug had been unloaded recently.
After requesting reinforcements, the Local Police managed to arrest the fleeing people, despite being in a rural area with numerous roads, without lighting, and with little coverage. Those arrested are five men, two of them aged 24 and 28, of Spanish nationality, and the other three of 23, 25 and 37, of Dominican nationality, who were transferred to the Santa Pola Civil Guard Headquarters.
The following night, the Civil Guard intensified surveillance of the nearby coastal areas. The operation organized in cooperation with the SIVE (Integrated External Surveillance System) allowed the detection of a suspicious vessel that was approaching the La Marina area at 3:30 in the morning. As soon as it detected the entry of a suspicious vessel, the Alicante Command Service Operations Center activated the territorial patrols and the Provincial Maritime Service, verifying that it was a drug boat.
Around 5 in the morning, the approach of the boat to El Pinet Beach was detected and how the people on board began to unload packages from it. Minutes later, the agents of the Civil Guard and the Local Police of Elx and Santa Pola present there began the intervention, reaching two people who fled on foot. Two vehicles used by the authors ended up submerged in the sea, where they were abandoned by their drivers.
Finally, the narco-boat fled out to sea, leaving dozens of bottles loaded with gasoline on the sand that it could not take, being followed closely by the boat of the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard of Alicante, while they dropped the bales, which were recovered by the GEAS (Special Group for Underwater Activities), with the participation of the Air Service of the Civil Guard and the Customs Surveillance Service.
The operation ended with the arrest of two more men, aged 41 and 66, of Spanish nationality, the seizure of 1,435 kg of hashish, the intervention of 5 vehicles and 70 bottles, between 20 and 25 liters, full of gasoline.
The seven detainees were made available to the Elche Guard Courts, the first five on June 13, and the last two, on the 15th. The Court has ordered six of them to be imprisoned.
