Mexican Sinaloa Cartel Linked to Moroccan Hashish Smuggling Ring Busted in Spain

During a large-scale anti-drug operation, the Civil Guard arrested 41 members of this network in Los Palacios (Seville), and seized about 1,300 kilos of Moroccan hashish, four planes, flight manuals and a marijuana field. Two months later, the civil guards intercepted a plane from the same network, carrying 420 kilograms of hashish from Morocco, and arrested the two crew members. In 2021, another plane from this network crashed during a night flight in Morocco.

The investigation, opened in September 2019 after the crash of a plane piloted by a Mexican residing in Seville, allowed the agents to discover that the criminal organization had a school where it trained Mexican and Latin American pilots, as well as a fleet of seven aircraft (two helicopters and five light aircraft). The investigators also discovered that the network was operating by sea. Four of its members were arrested while trying to introduce 750 kilos of Moroccan hashish by sea into Spain.