A British pensioner has been arrested in Spain after allegedly attempting to smuggle 60kg of cannabis resin worth an estimated £350,000 onto a ferry.
The 69-year-old, who has not been named, was caught red-handed as he prepared to board a vessel from Ceuta, Spain’s North African enclave, bound for Algeciras, near Gibraltar.
Spanish police swooped yesterday after a sniffer dog helping with routine checks became visibly agitated near the man’s UK-plated vehicle, prompting officers to carry out a thorough search.
But what they found was staggering. Authorities stumbled across 62.3kg of cannabis resin stashed away in a concealed compartment built into the roof of the car.
The packages were branded with names including ‘Dream Gelato’ and ‘Serial Milk’, suggesting the drugs were prepped and packaged for illegal distribution.
Local authorities have yet to confirm the street value of the seizure, but early estimates suggest it could fetch upwards of £350,000 on the black market.
The Brit – believed to reside in the UK – was taken into custody on the spot and is now being held by police.
It’s not yet known where he was ultimately headed, or whether he was acting alone.
He is due to appear in court within the coming hours, where a judge will decide whether to release him on bail or remand him in custody as the criminal investigation continues.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Ceuta said: ‘Yesterday around 6pm officers from the First Fiscal and Border Company, along with colleagues from Ceuta’s Cynological Group who inspect vehicles preparing to embark on ferries heading to Algeciras, carried out a check on a UK-plated vehicle with a specialist sniffer dog that indicated the possibility there were drugs inside.
‘A full check on the areas the specialist dog had marked as possible hiding places for the drugs subsequently took place.
‘A total of 62.3 kilos of cannabis resin was discovered in a secret compartment in the roof of the vehicle.
‘The driver, a British man born in 1956 who was registered as a UK resident, was subsequently arrested.
‘The suspect will now go before a court in Ceuta as the suspected author of a crime of drug trafficking.
‘The drugs have been seized and handed over to a central government delegation and the vehicle is now under the supervision of the courts.’
In May a 79-year-old British pensioner was arrested at a Chilean airport with £200,000 of powerful crystal meth.
Bowls fans and fishing enthusiast William Eastman, from Milborne Port, Somerset, is currently languishing in prison in the south American country after being arrested at Santiago International Airport with five kilos of methamphetamine.
He claimed to have no idea he was carrying drugs and told cops he only agreed to carry the suitcase containing the drugs on the promise of a £3.7million reward.
The frail senior citizen produced a certificate with the prize money pledge as a ‘phoney get-out’ before being taken into custody when he was stopped after getting off a flight from Cancun in Mexico.
He is expected to be formally charged in around three months time after police and prosecutors complete their ongoing investigation.
News today of the Ceuta arrest came hours after police revealed they had arrested a 27-year-old British man at Lanzarote airport after four kilos of marijuana buds worth more than £6,000 was discovered in his luggage.
The suitcase had been checked in for a flight to Tenerife South.
Cops said the luggage had an ‘unusually low weight for its size and was giving off a strong smell.’
The unnamed man has already appeared in court but it was not clear today whether he had been remanded in custody or released on bail.
In June it emerged a glamorous British OnlyFans model was languishing in a hellhole jail after being caught trying to smuggle nearly £200,000 worth of drugs into Spain.
Clara Wilson, from Huthwaite, Notts, has been charged with a drug running offence after more than 34kg of cannabis were found in her suitcase at Barcelona’s El Prat airport.
And the pretty 36-year-old has been warned she faces being caged for up to four years and ordered to pay more than £750,000 in fines if convicted.
Clara was held as she got off a Qatar Airways flight from Doha on January 20 although she is thought to have travelled to Barcelona from Bangkok with stopovers in India and Qatar.
She was remanded to a prison near the Catalan capital two days after her arrest and has been held there ever since as part of her pre-trial detention.
No trial date has yet been set, but an indictment shows public prosecutors have already demanded a four-year prison sentence and huge fine payment totalling £758,000 on conviction.
Under Spanish law the British model can be held for up to two years in prison before she has to be bailed, but well-placed sources said they expected her to be tried later this year.
At the end of May Spanish police went public with the arrests of a British couple aged 33 and 34 held at Valencia airport after 33 kilos of marihuana was found in their luggage.
They claimed they were tourists coming from Thailand.
