Secret drug cave discovered by Spanish police
A secret operations centre buried in a garden belonging to alleged drug traffickers has been discovered by Spanish police, accessed via steps hidden under an ornamental fountain.
It was only after Guardia Civil officers in the Costa del Sol town of Mijas began to investigate the three men accused of trafficking cannabis that they made the discovery, realising a small ornate fountain positioned next to a barbecue lifted up to reveal a shaft into the ground.
At the bottom of the stairwell, officers advanced along a cramped tunnel before entering a shipping container buried under the garden, where the gang hid drug consignments.
“It seems like something out of Hollywood, but we see this kind of thing in the local drug trafficking scene,” a Guardia Civil spokesman told The Telegraph.
“They were not the largest-scale traffickers ever but they had excellent infrastructure,” he said of the three men arrested, Spanish and French nationals aged between 23 and 31.
A switch inside the house triggered a hydraulic mechanism to raise the fountain.
“Obviously, you need people to build this and you have to buy their silence by paying five times more than the going rate, for example. There is so much money in drug trafficking that it is easy to buy people’s loyalty.”
The gang used what Spanish security forces call the “go fast” method to move their wares, stuffing a powerful car with up to 500 kilos of drugs and crossing Spain quickly with a pilot vehicle travelling two miles in front ensuring that the road is clear of checkpoints.
Officers found 10 kilos of cannabis concealed inside compartments within two cars owned by the gang. The sunken hideout contained a bag of just under 11,000 euros, equipment for growing cannabis plants indoors, and hashish presses.
