Hashish smugglers use new routes, according to the Spanish Central Narcotics Brigade

The Central Narcotics Brigade has referred in one of its recent reports to the emergence of new routes utilized by hashish-smugglers in Morocco. Quoting the Spanish Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, the brigade relied on a survey conducted by the Spanish anti-trafficking services, according to Spain's EFE.

The Iberian country has become a «retaining wall» after it successfully seized 40% of the cocaine entering Europe via Latin America and 70% of Moroccan hashish, stressed the minister. Because it is one of the closest European countries to Morocco –one of the world’s largest cannabis producers alongside Afghanistan- Spain remains a main gateway of hashish to the continent, through the «straight road», referring to Giblartar.

This is a particularly breakthrough route used by drug smugglers, who have been subject to increased surveillance since the installation and implementation, in 2002, in Algeciras (far south of Spain) of a «unique surveillance system in Europe», explained El País. The integrated management system for external borders (SIVE), which is part of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), is equipped with fixed and mobile radar stations and night vision cameras, reports Geoconfluences website. At the end of 2007, the southern Spanish border, including the Canary Archipelago, had 25 SIVE stations.

Neglecting boats

Drug traffickers - of Moroccan hashish in this case – have chosen new routes to transport the substance, the central brigade warns. They transit directly through the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin, including Libya, before joining Egypt and back in the Western Mediterranean.

A circuit that has been used for years, recalls Chakib El Khayari, an activist interested in issues related to the cultivation of cannabis. It's not new. «They have been going through Algeria since 2007-2008. From 2011, they took advantage of the first big migration movements in Libya to get the drug out easier, especially with all the problems the country is suffering from, it was even easier for them», he told Yabiladi.

According to Chakib El Khayari, the networks resort less and less to boats to escape the vigilance of the coastguard, while preferring «the boats on which they load their products, or the trucks that come from Tangier».