Twenty-three arrests in Spain for drugs trafficking gang

The head of the criminal police in Seville, Enrique Jiménez, told a press conference yesterday that the operation - "Itálica" - had started because of information obtained from an illegal garage in Seville where vehicles were being adapted in order to hide drugs.

Detecting the drugs with sniffer dogs proved to be difficult because of the use of unknown electronic and mechanical devices.

The investigation, with the assistance of the public prosecutor and courts in Seville, had been carried out in secret and spread to various parts of the country. The drugs were being shipped from Colombia in containers belonging to a company in Castellón and were then distributed across Spain and Portugal. Money laundering, meanwhile, was being undertaken involving hotel businesses on Spain's east coast and in Palma.