Spanish police have discovered a drug-smuggling tunnel in the North African exclave of Ceuta, complete with a rail system and underground cranes to transport hashish from Morocco into Spain.
Police said in a news release on Tuesday that the structure, concealed beneath an industrial warehouse, extended over three levels, including a descent shaft, an intermediate chamber for pallet storage, and the tunnel itself. Police said the group operating the tunnel had installed pumping and soundproofing systems that “kept the infrastructure operational without arousing suspicion.”
Spain is a major entry point for hashish into Europe. Ceuta, along with the other Spanish exclave of Melilla to the east, forms the European Union’s only land border with Africa.
Authorities seized 17 metric tons of the drug, $1.6 million in cash, and arrested 27 people in connection with the operation. The police did not disclose the street value of the haul.
Police said two people headed the network. One, based in Morocco, was arrested on Thursday night and is considered the “narco-architect” and “mastermind of the tunnels,” police said, while the other person, based in Ceuta, owned all the seized drugs.
Authorities released video of the bust, showing officers raiding the tunnel and seizing evidence.
Hashish, derived from cannabis resin, is usually trafficked into Spain by sea using speedboats. In 2023, Spain accounted for 68% of all resin seizures in the EU, according to the latest data from the EU drugs agency.
Smugglers have sometimes used unconventional methods to bring other drugs into Spain.
In the northwestern region of Galicia, “narco subs” are periodically discovered transporting cocaine from South America, underscoring the country’s role as a transit hub.
In January, Spanish police said they busted a network that saw smugglers swim on the high seas to help stash Colombian cocaine on Europe-bound container ships and hijack vessels. That bust was revealed just three days after Spain announced its largest-ever seizure of cocaine at sea.
Last year, police forces dismantled a drug trafficking ring that used what authorities called high-speed “narco boats” to smuggle large quantities of cocaine from Brazil and Colombia to the Canary Islands. The ring allegedly used an abandoned shipwreck as a refueling platform for the speedboats.
