People used to hide cash under the mattresses, nowadays it seems they hide it in the spare-wheel compartment... at least when it's naughty money!

Yes, the Guardia Civil came across 152,930 euros in banknotes when they inspected the vehicle driven by two young men in their early 20s.

Now, there’s nothing to stop you taking your cash for a drive in the country so that it can get a breath of fresh air, but if it is over 100,000… then you need an obligatory document (declaración de movimientos de medios de pago).

This took place on the A-92N where it passes through the municipality of Gor, in the early hours of the 5th. The DGT had set up a check point near kilometre point 20 to carry out random checks. Well, the two lads of 22 and 23, who were travelling in a rented car, obviously looked as suspicious as hell, because they were pulled over, their IDs checked and the car searched.

Now, by sheer coincidence, the gentlemen had come over from Ceuta (North Africa)… which might explain why the police stopped that particular car; dark night, dark car… dark gentlemen, although nobody could accuse the police of racial profiling!.

The police saw that they were very nervous so they had a good prod around in the boot. They noticed that where the spare wheel should have been, there was a large holdall with a stash of cash. Both men claimed that it wasn’t theirs (oops, who put that there?) until one of them said that it belonged to him and amounted to over 150,000 euros.

The police asked him for an official cover note and he replied that he didn’t have one, so the officers confiscated it, taking it to the Guadix main Guardia post where it could be counted in front of the two men.

Inside the bag were 15 bundles of differing values: 2 x 100 euros, 1,457 x 50 euros, 3,148 x 20 euros, 1,683 x 10 euros and 18 x 5-euro notes.

Both men were charged for infringing the Ley de Prevención del Blanqueo de Capitales and the Guardia Civil have now opened an investigation into its origin.

(News: Guadix, Granada, Andalucia)