Fiona Govan
A GROUP of children playing in a beach in Almuñécar discovered 17.2kg of smuggled hashish that had washed ashore.
In an adventure that could come straight from the pages of a Famous Five story book, the group of kids came across the illicit find during a family outing to La Herradura beach in Granada province on Sunday afternoon.
The children stumbled across a petrol can on the beach and inside discovered several dozen packages of a dark substance wrapped up in cellophane.
They immediately notified local police who confirmed the contents were indeed hashish and said it had likely washed ashore in recent high winds after falling from a drug trafficking boat.
Photos released by the local police force showed 22 larger packages weighing a total of 12.6 kg and many small packages adding up to 4.6kgs.
It is not unusual to find such jetsam along the Spanish coast, which is used as a main entry point by drug traffickers crossing the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco.
Last October three tons of cannabis resin washed up on Isla Canela beach near Cadiz during a storm.
Police have warned beachcombers not to take home any packages found on the shore as they could be charged with possession but to report such findings immediately to police.
