A major, anti-drugs, police operation took place on the Costa Tropical resulting in 17 arrests and 1.5 tonnes of drugs confiscated.

The Guardia Civil swooped on a landing operation upon Playa de La Ventanilla within the municipality of Sorvilán as 51 packages of hashish were being unloaded.

Curiously, most of the packages had a football-player, photograph on them; that of Norwegian, Erling Haaland who plays for Manchester City.

It was the coastal radar/infrared system (Sistema Integrado de Vigilancia Exterior) that detected a suspicious craft just over 18 nautical miles south of Motril heading for the coast around midnight, last night.

The SIVE operators kept an eye on the craft all night before detecting a change of course two miles out, with a new heading of north east before turning directly towards coast to land. Officers from the Motril Guardia Civil post were there to meet them.

The first arrests were two men from sub-Saharan Africa who were waiting in a rented, large van for the shipment to arrive. The next three, of the same origin, were bringing packages up to the van, now in the hands of the police who were there waiting for them.

The crew onboard saw what was happening and sped off back to sea, jettisoning the remaining packages. They were later collared by the Servicio Marítimo de La Guardia Civil de Motril.

When the officers inspected the van more closely, they found a 9mm pistol in the glove compartment together with spare ammunition. They also found the keys for two more rented vehicles that they had hidden on a nearby rambla.

During the rest of the morning the officers found a further dozen more people hidden in the undergrowth and rocks who had been employed to carry the packages from the beach to the awaiting vehicles, some of whom were from Senegal, Guinea and the Ivory Coast whilst the rest had no ID on them.

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