Huelva shootout between drug-traffickers and police leads to one arrest and 1,000 kilos of hashish seized

While media attention has focused in recent days on the fire in Huelva, the Guardia Civil have brought to light a new drug-trafficking incident that took place in the same province on Thursday morning.

According to Huelva24, drug-traffickers engaged in a shootout with the Guardia Civil in the town of Aljaraque while trying to unload a hashish shipment.

There were no injuries. The Guardia Civil managed to seize approximately 1,000 kilos of hashish.

The drug-traffickers' armed response, who reportedly used military-grade weapons, triggered a major police operation involving air and ground resources.

The criminals attempted to defend their stash during its transfer to the storage facility, where they were to hide the substances until a subsequent transfer.

The police who confronted the drug-traffickers were in plainclothes. This is not the first time that drug-traffickers have not hesitated to open fire on plainclothes officers in fear it might be a drug rip-off or theft by a rival gang posing as police.

The operation was extremely high-risk for the police, because the criminals did not hesitate to shoot to kill.

As a result of the operation, the police managed to arrest one of the suspects, of foreign origin.

According to official information, the suspicious vessel carrying the cargo was spotted eight nautical miles offshore and the unloading operation was ready near the Punta Umbría estuary.

It was at this point that the Guardia Civil intercepted the unloading. The drug-traffickers fled and the chase ultimately finished in Aljaraque.

The anti-drug prosecution has been denouncing an increase in the violence traffickers armed with weapons of war use.

To highlight the dire situation along the Huelva coastline, the police have posted an image security cameras have captured that shows drug-traffickers unloading a shipment in broad daylight, guarded by weapons, in the middle of the Huelva estuary.

This latest operation has once again angered the Guardia Civil, who are demanding more specialised resources in the fight against drug-trafficking. According to them, this area of Huelva lacks the resources that other parts of Andalucía have.

"We had been warning and denouncing that this was going to happen. Drug-traffickers shot at our colleagues this morning. Luckily, no one was injured. Does the Ministry of the Interior need more Guardia Civil officers killed by these thugs to stop this?" the Guardia Civil union said on social media.

The scale of the problem was revealed earlier this week when the EU said that Spain is the main gatewway for drugs into Europe.

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