It was the size of the vessel that gave it away; it was too small a fishing boat to be fishing nine nautical miles out to sea.

This one was ten metres long and a fishing boat of that size would normally be keeping much closer to the coast, so the maritime service of the Guardia Civil were sent out to investigate.

The craft had been detected the SIVE (Sistema Integral de Vigilancia Exterior). This system is a chain of high-tech radar and infra-red stations that continually scan the Med off the Andalusian coast.

The Fishing boat, with a three man crew, was registered and worked out of Roquetas del Mar and was level with Motril when it was boarded.

One of the crew explained that they had been fishing off Málaga but were returning to Roquetas at full speed because of a “family emergency.” However, the Guardia Civil, knuckling back a tear of sympathy, decided to inspect the boat anyway.

It was unfortunate for the crew that the Guardia had brought a sniffer dog with them and, lo; four kilos of hashish turned up in 16 small packages hidden amongst the fishing nets. There was also 24,000 euros in cash aboard, stashed in a water container.

The street price of the haul was 6,000 euros… and a spell in the slammer (jail).

After an appearance before a magistrate the narco-pescadores were released pending trial and were even allowed to sail off in the boat, as it was the property of the father of one of the crew, whom the police considered was not involved in the drug smuggling.

The three men will be appearing in court on the 20th of October… or disappearing over the offing the day before, perhaps.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)