(26 Dec 2012)
1. Wide of huge haul of seized drugs
2. Mid of boxes containing hashish
3. Close up of hashish wrapped in plastic
4. Policeman walking through consignment
5. Small packs of hash in crates
6. Policeman opening marijuana bag
7. Close up of marijuana buds
8. Mid of boxes of seized drugs
9. Wide of seized drugs
10. Police Director General Ignacio Cosido entering news conference
11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Ignacio Cosido, Police Director General:
"We have achieved the disbanding of a very important organisation and arrested 35. It was an organisation with members of different nationalities, an international organisation, one of the main hashish distributors, not only in Madrid but for the whole of Spain. Plus, they also exported and trafficked with hash in other European Union countries."
12. Cutaway of drug packages
13. SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Ignacio Cosido, Police Director General:
"This operation shows Spain is getting more and more complicated and dangerous for narcotics trafficking organisations, and we are actually seeing a tendency on the international narcotics trafficking organisations to open new routes somewhere else."
14. Various of seized drugs
STORYLINE:
Spanish police seized 11 metric tons (12.1 US tons) of hashish smuggled from Morocco on trucks with fuel tanks rigged to hide the drugs and arrested 35 people, authorities said on Wednesday.
Police said they had broken up a major smuggling ring feeding the European market.
Much of the haul was displayed across a patio outside the headquarters of the National Police, with some hashish packaged in small amounts resembling bars of soap.
Most of the rest was held in suitcases made out of tape and packaging material.
Authorities said the hashish travelled in trucks that took cargo ferries from Morocco to southern Spain, and were then driven to a Madrid suburb where the hashish was extracted from the vehicles' fuel tanks.
From there, some of the hashish was sent to Madrid for sale while the rest was put aboard other trucks carrying legal merchandise to countries including Belgium, Britain, France and Holland.
Those arrested included 31 Moroccan nationals, three Spaniards and a Belgian woman.
One of the Spaniards and the Belgian woman were truckers driving rigs with loads of carrots and clothing with the hashish hidden amid the legitimate cargo, National Police chief Ignacio Cosido said.
Cosido declined to put a value on the hashish seized except to say that it would be very profitable.
Police also seized numerous bags of marijuana, 150-thousand euros (198-thousand US dollars) in cash, 14 vehicles valued at 400-thousand euros (528-thousand US dollars) and 109 cellphones during the course of an eight-month investigation.
The investigation started when authorities broke up a Madrid hashish selling ring and went after that group's suppliers.
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