Officials from the Spanish State Tax Administration Agency and agents from the Civil Guard, in collaboration with authorities in Morocco and the Dominican Republic, dismantled an international hashish trafficking network in Seville and Almeria. According to Spanish news agency Europa Press, 20 people were arrested in Spain, one in the Dominican Republic and two others in Morocco during this operation. In a joint statement, the authorities explained that four other people in the Dominican Republic are accused of allegedly having links with the network and that 20 properties worth €2,000,000 were confiscated and are currently being investigated. €3,500,000, eight high-end vehicles, as well as 16,000 kilos of hashish were also confiscated. The operation was launched in September 2017 after the authorities stopped a high-end vehicle that carried €300,000 euros. The driver was a Frenchman with a heavy criminal record. A joint investigation revealed that he is a member of an organization that transports hashish to Spain via agricultural import companies. It also revealed that this network is a perfectly structured and hierarchical one that is involved in drug trafficking. The network's money is sent to the Dominican Republic to be laundered. In May 2019, twelve house searches were carried out in Spain and five others in the Dominican Republic. A joint team of investigators from the National Police, the Civil Guard and the tax administration agency also visited the Caribbean country where 18 people were arrested, including the leader of the network.
