Laurence Dollimore
SPANISH police have intercepted a mammoth haul of hashish on the riverbed of a sleepy town in Cadiz.
Some five tonnes of the drug were discovered during a boat raid in Chipiona on Sunday night.
The hashish was being transported by a ‘narco’ vessel on the Guadalquivir river.
READ MORE: Narco is killed during dramatic police chase on the Guadalquivir River in southern Spain
The contraband was hidden in 138 bales (pictured above), which weighed a total of 5.5 tonnes.
The Guardia Civil made four arrests in the counter narcotics operation.
The Guadalquivir river is fast becoming a major hotbed for drug traffickers.
It comes after a drug trafficker died on the same river earlier this month when his boat overturned during a dramatic police chase.
The fatal operation began on a Saturday night when the Guardia Civil detected eight ‘narco boats’ entering the Guadalquivir River in Cadiz.
The Maritime Service of Cadiz and Huelva gave chase to vessels, aided by a police helicopter.
One of the boats, with four engines and loaded with bales of hashish, was accompanied by a guide vessel.
Once both reached land, they began to unload the drugs, at which point the helicopter began to land next to them.
The crew fled the scene on the largest drug boat, abandoning 47 bales of hashish and guide boat.
The chase along the river lasted for around 400 metres before the narco boat crashed into the riverbed at full speed and overturned.
One of the men died while four others were injured, some of them seriously.
Officers seized a further 74 bales of hashish that were scattered at the scene of the accident.
The men who survived are being held ahead of their court date.
