News about drug busts is constant but this one sticks out a little: 245 kilos of hashish stored in a hostal room.

An Italian citizen had been staying in this room in a hostal in Vegas del Genil, according to the Guardia Civil, who not only discovered the haul but also a pistol of a Yugoslavian make whose serial number had been altered. The present whereabouts of the room occupant is not known.

This bust was the second part of a police operation called Efeso; the first part took place on the 19th of October and resulted in three arrests and 790 plants confiscated.

In the property search they came across indications that a hostal room in the said town could be the whereabouts of another suspect; a man of Albanian origin but now a nationalised Italian citizen. After obtaining a search warrant for the hostal, the police moved in and found the beforementioned stash of hashish.

Editorial comment: as said at the beginning of the article, the amount of hashish in a B&B room is surprising. After all, we’re talking about the equivalent weight of nearly 50 5-litre bottles of water, and that’s the weight because the mass of the drugs would take up more room, so how do you get that into a rented room without anybody noticing?

The fact is that so much time as well as material & manpower resources of the police forces is being taken up because this kind of drug is illegal. You make it legal and the profit falls out the bottom of the criminal underworld and the police have more time freed up for other kinds of criminal activity.

(News: Vegas de Genil, Vega, Granada, Andalucia)