A joint investigation from the Policia Nacional and the NCA uncovered the criminal organisation
An international drug gang has been smuggling cocaine and hashish between the UK and Spain using boxes of frozen broccoli. Policia Nacional, the national police force in Spain, released a video showing officers opening boxes of frozen broccoli and finding drugs inside a property in Guadalajara, northeast of Madrid.
The force also confirmed searches in two homes and a warehouse resulted in two-and-a-half tonnes of hashish and 187 kilograms of cocaine being seized as part of the investigation. Nine British nationals have been arrested as a result.
Spanish news site En Castilla La Mancha reported how police, in a joint investigation with the National Crime Agency (NCA), arrested two of the nine Britons in Spain, with the warehouse searched belonging to a company “dedicated to the export of fruit and vegetables”. The investigation is reported to have begun in 2022, with the initial focus being on identifying businesses controlled by criminal organisations shipping drugs to the UK.
Officers discovered earlier this year, as part of the investigation into several businesses, a new company playing its part in the smuggling of drugs between Spain and the UK using fruit and vegetables. Officers identified members travelling to and from the warehouse owned by the company where shipments were prepared.
Members of the criminal organisation would also stay in an apartment close to the warehouse and travel using rental vehicles. En Castilla La Mancha continued to report how in October, three pallets of boxes of broccoli were sent to Manchester and one of the leaders of the gang travelling to the city to arrange the deal.
This is when officers stormed the warehouse seized around 400 kilograms of hashish ready for shipment and arrested two members of the organisation. At the same time, NCA officers seized 600 kilograms of hashish hidden in frozen broccoli and arrested seven members of the crime gang.
