BIGGEST HASH SEIZE YET IN THE BALEARICS

OVER five tonnes of hashish was yesterday confiscated from a British registered yacht in Palma and five people were arrested. The three-metre vessel Michelle Louise was intercepted by a customs launch between Majorca and Ibiza on Wednesday evening with the largest shipment of hashish ever caught in the Balearics, 5'200 kilos in total. Two of the five people arrested yesterday are Spanish and the other three are Moroccan. According to police sources, the hashish was loaded on to the boat off the coast of Morocco and was actually bound for Castellon, but the skipper apparently decided to make the journey by following the Spanish coastline and passed through Balearic waters. It appears that the skipper took the decision in order to avoid alerting the suspicions of the police and customs authority. However, it appears that the vessel was being shadowed by the drugs squad in Malaga, which was already investigating the operation.
Police in Malaga contacted their Balearic counterparts once it was suspected the Michelle Louise” had veered from its expected course. The customs launch Aguilla intercepted the British registered yacht on Wednesday evening and members of the drugs squad boarded the vessel.