Police manage to stop only 20 percent of hashish entering Spain

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Police manage to stop only 20 percent of hashish entering Spain

8 January 2009

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publi...cle_19543.shtml

 

National Police and Guardia Civil cannot cope with the volume of drugs being smuggled from Morocco into Andalucía.

 

The National Police and the Guardia Civil have admitted with their latest statistics that they are losing the battle against the hashish traffickers. Despite achieving an average of two large successes a week against the traffickers, it is estimated that only 20% of the drug which enters the country is caught by the authorities.

 

Most of the drug is brought into Spain from Morocco with the main port of entry being Andalucía and the Guadalquivir River which is now known as Cannabis Motorway.

The statistics show the drug runners are Moroccans, Spanish and British.

 

A report from the Europol, European Police, admits that the drug running is so intense that stopping it completely is practically impossible.

 

It’s a profitable operation with the traffickers buying the drug for between 14 and 40 cents a gram. By the time it makes the beaches of Spain it is worth between 80cents and 1euro 50 cents a gram, and by the time it makes the streets the user pays between 3 and 4.5 € a gram.

 

In 2007, the last year statistics are available, 653,631 kilos of hashish were intercepted in Spain, 42% more than in 2006.