Police have arrested 19 people for smuggling immigrants and drugs across from north Africa into Spain on taxi boats.
They charged up to 5000 euros for transferring the immigrants to points along the Almeria coast.
Cocaine, methamphetamine and stolen mobile phones would also be sent in vessels back to Algeria, where the drugs would sell for more.
“The crossings posed a serious risk to the lives of the migrants, including a shipwreck, such as one that occurred last October in which two people died,” Guardia Civil said.
Police seized 17 vessels, more than 48,000 euros and 90,000 ecstasy pills while searching seven houses in the Almeria province.
Police uncovered the plot on the internet where agents discovered a series of offers spruiking organised boat trips to migrants ‘in vulnerable situations’.
The group had set up their base port in Almeria, where they kept boats and launched trips to pick up the migrants in Africa.
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