– Migrants on water scooters –
Morocco has become the world’s top producer and exporter of hashish over the past decades, according to a report from the Lisbon based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
Just 14 kilometres separates northern Morocco from Spain’s southern Andalucia region, making it the ideal transit route for smugglers.
Of the 319 tonnes of hashish seized in Spain in 2013, 262 tonnes were found in Andalucia.
Spain accounted for nearly three fourths, or 73.7 percent, of the total amount of hashish seized in Europe in 2012, in the latest figures available from the interior ministry.
Traffickers monitor the movements of police patrols in a game of cat-and-mouse in the Strait of Gibraltar, sometimes sending out “dummy” speedboats without anything on board.
During the warm summer months when the sea is calm, traffickers use water scooters, which are smaller and harder to detect, to cross over into Spain with hashish — and illegal migrants.
“A water scooter can transport four bales of cannabis and two migrants,” said Jesus.
“When they arrive on land, it is up to them to take the merchandise to the buyer, as a way of paying their passage,” he added.
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