Sending large amounts of hashish hidden in coconuts, pineapples and other real fruits and vegetables is a method well known to the world's police forces.
But molding fruit out of plastic, cellophane and patent paper into wrappers for hash balls, packaging and shipping them on pallets as if they were real, quality tomatoes is something more exotic.
The Civil Guard and the National Police have seized 22,370 kilograms of cannabis resin camouflaged in thousands of units of fake tomatoes (in reality, just bright red paper) that were already ready to be shipped to France.
The network was based in Córdoba, but practically all the drugs have been seized in Málaga, neatly arranged on pallets of shiny fake tomatoes.
Operation Califa Trucks began on January 10, when a van carrying 2,600 kilos of hashish "distributed in several boxes of fake tomatoes" was intercepted in Malaga.
Although there was some real fruit, most of the shipment was pressed balls of hashish resin, which were wrapped in food plastic and, in turn, in patent leather and cellophane and with the logo of a fruit and vegetable company (with the name
Lemon
, with the drawing of a kind of demonic lemon), according to sources from the Civil Guard of Córdoba.
The pallets with the false tomatoes seized in a warehouse in Malaga.
The agents went to the warehouse of origin of the full tomatoes, also in the province of Malaga, where another 19,700 kilos of hashish resin were located.
"The drugs were hidden in 18 large pallets that contained balls of hashish that pretended to be tomatoes," according to a joint statement from the Police and Civil Guard released this morning.
In that warehouse, two people were arrested who were hiding under a truck.
With the drug already seized, the operation was deployed.
The agents carried out four searches in the province of Córdoba, where five people were arrested, including the alleged leader of the organization, whose identity has not been provided.
This is "a well-known person," according to sources from the armed institute, which had created a hard core of trust, while using other people for higher-risk tasks.
"The criminal organization had a complex structure, rich in human, technical and material resources and with a strong economic capacity," the note states.
The entire organization had the appearance of a legal company, made up of smaller firms.
The hard core used "straw people", front men, "with no other responsibility than to appear as managers of the companies used for the rental and/or acquisition of vehicles, real estate", they affirm.
Arrests have also been made in the province of Cádiz, where the drug entered Europe.
