Not only drones that fly in the air, but also underwater drones are used to smuggle drugs. The Spanish National Police managed to seize 3 large underwater drones built to smuggle drugs after 14 months of investigation. These drones traveled across the Strait of Gibraltar. When smugglers use drones to transport drugs, it poses less danger to them.
🚩Desmantelada una organización que fabricaba #drones y #semisumergibles capaces de cruzar el Estrecho con hasta 200 kg de droga
📍Hay 8 personas detenidas en #Cádiz, #Málaga y #Barcelona
👉1ª vez que se intervienen vehículos que operan bajo el agua sin tripulación a bordo pic.twitter.com/P81cRwjIVx
— Policía Nacional (@policia) July 4, 2022
Most drugs travel to Europe via Spain
The Spanish police are constantly dealing with problems with smugglers. This is due to Spain being geographically close to Morocco. Morocco is one of the major producers of cannabis. Two different continents are only 15 kilometers apart at their closest point. This is a distance that quality drones can easily cover. Each of the confiscated drones is an unmanned vessel and can carry a load weighing up to 220 kilograms. A total of three drones were seized, one was completed and two were under construction. The vessels were to be handed over to French drug traffickers upon completion.
The drones belonged to a large gang whose members are located in Cádiz, Malaga and Barcelona. This gang provided logistical assistance to clients in Italy, Denmark and France. In addition to underwater drones, aerial drones that could carry a 200-kilogram load were seized.
During the arrests, the Spanish National Police also seized almost 145 kg of hashish, 8 kg of marijuana and €157,370 in cash. Unfortunately, it is possible to confiscate only a fraction of the drones that are used to smuggle drugs. The number of drones that fail to catch can be huge. This is currently one of the main ways drugs are distributed to other countries.
Photo credit: SPANISH POLICE
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62040790
