It was probably the biggest drug bust; certainly the most surprising one, on the Costa Tropical in a long time: a Sergeant in the Guardia Civil and an ex-guardsman have been arrested in connection with a consignment of 1.5 tonnes of hashish.

The scenario of the arrests was the sleepy village of Vélez-Benaudalla, just above Motril, whose inhabitants were surprised in the early hours of last Friday to find the village alive with police vans from the Drugs Squad and the Organised-Crime Squad.

The 1,500 kilos of hashish were found in a flat in the Urbanización Quality Sol during a search and one of those arrested was the Head of the Guardia Civil post in the village. The policeman had just been promoted from Sergeant to Police Inspector and was awaiting his transfer to a new posting when the raid took place.

Meanwhile, simultaneously, an ex-Policia Nacional was arrested over in the Axarquía in connection with the same drugs ring. All told, the police raid produced five arrests, one of whom was later released pending trial. However, the police have not issued a press release as the judge has placed a gagging order on the case.

Whereas the Sergeant-cum-Inspector was a ‘model policeman,’ much respected by both his colleagues and the villagers, the ex-guardsman, who is a Sergeant in the reserves, was reportedly keen to boast and throw money around. He and his Russian wife, 20 years his junior, one villager claims, were accustomed to eating in the best restaurants along the coast and had flashed 500-euro notes on more than one occasion.

On the same morning that the Drugs Squad was carrying out the raid in Vélez Benaudalla, down on the coast the police were waiting to intercept a shipment in a zodiac carrying several tonnes of hashish from North Africa. However, the smugglers were spooked by the police presence and beat a hasty retreat after unloading ‘only’ another 1.5 tonnes. The police believe, however that the inflatable launch was carrying up to five tonnes.

The Ideal newspaper ran articles on this incident two days running, and on the second day, hastily emphasised that their first article did not imply, or was meant to imply that the said Sergeant-cum-Inspector had been arrested in possession of the said drug, but that he had simply been arrested at the same time as the drug haul hidden in the flat had been discovered. They made this rectification at the request of the man’s family.

We shall bring later developments in the case as and when they are made public by the authorities.

(News: Velez Benaudalla, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)