Customs officials from the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard in Spain have seized 2,600 kilograms of cocaine that was concealed amongst goods being transported in two shipping containers from Ghana, bound for the port of Valencia.
The operation concluded with the arrest of two people in the municipality of Viator (Almería): the importer of the goods and the person responsible for unloading them.
Detection of the containers and location of the drugs
As part of its efforts to monitor international trade, the ENS (Entry Summary) Unit of the Sub-Directorate-General for Customs Surveillance Operations selected two shipping containers for inspection, having assessed them as presenting a high risk profile.
The containers had been loaded on 2 August at the port of Tema (Ghana) and arrived at the port of Valencia on 22 August on board a container ship.
Whilst inspecting the goods, investigators discovered false bottoms in the wooden crates in which the declared cargo (coconuts) was being transported.
Beneath these false bottoms, the investigators found, in each box, a whole layer of packages of the type commonly used to transport cocaine.
On opening these parcels, they discovered a white powdery substance whose characteristics were consistent with cocaine hydrochloride.
Screening tests carried out using a ‘narcotest’ confirmed that the substance was cocaine.
Tracking of goods and seizures
Once the drugs had been seized and the relevant customs formalities completed, an operation was launched to track the containers as they left the port of Valencia and on to their final destination.
During the operation, all the goods were transferred to two refrigerated lorries, which continued their journey to a warehouse in the La Juaida industrial estate in Almería.
Once there, the officers carried out surveillance of the unloading of the goods, which led to the arrest of the two individuals allegedly involved in the import and unloading of the lorries.
The operation involved the Valencia and Almería Operational Units of the Customs Surveillance Service, as well as the Organised Crime Units and the UDAIFF of the Civil Guard Command in Valencia.
First published at https://sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es