Spanish Police Arrest Drug Traffickers Smuggling Cannabis As 'Ukraine Aid'

"War brings out the worst and the best in people," Dick Winters, WWII veteran and author said. Judging by the ongoing crisis in eastern Europe, both premises are true.

While thousands of people worldwide are taking part in efforts to help Ukrainian civilians after Russia launched an invasion in February, a group of people accused of smuggling cannabis camouflaged as aid for those suffering the consequences of the war has been arrested in Spain.

Among thirty people detained by Spanish police in Andalusia were Ukrainians, Spaniards, Germans and Moroccans, reported BBC News.

The Guardia Civil (Spanish security forces) said on Monday that suspicions first arose after a group of Ukrainians on the Costa del Sol were identified as collecting cannabis and storing it in a flat in Mijas, near Malaga.

The cannabis, packed in vacuum-sealed bags and stuffed into cardboard boxes, was then transported through several countries by convoys of vans registered in Ukraine.

"The cannabis traveled as part of a 'solidarity convoy' so they could pass under the radar of police and border controls," Spanish police said.

As part of the raids in Malaga and the southern cities of Granada, Cordoba and Seville, nearly €800,000 ($847,000) were seized in addition to six guns and 2,500 cannabis plants.

Last month the Guardia Civil arrested 20 people for having more than 32 tons of weed stored in the Spanish cities of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valencia and Asturias, which they sold "through a complex business network," that involved sending the vacuum-packed cannabis throughout Spain and to Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Belgium and other European countries.

The street value of the largest haul of packaged cannabis ever uncovered globally was more than $65 million. 

Photo: Courtesy of Kindel Media by Pexels