Hashish packages on Barbate and Zahara beaches during peak season
The Civil Guard seized fifteen packages of hashish on the Cádiz coastline whilst beaches registered high tourist numbers. Drug trafficking networks do not cease their activity in summer.
Drug shipments on the sand: drug trafficking does not rest on the Cádiz coast
The tourist season does not halt drug trafficking activity on the Cádiz coastline. According to Google News ES — Crime (es), the Civil Guard seized fifteen packages of hashish on the coast of Barbate and Zahara de los Atunes following an unloading operation, whilst the beaches were crowded with bathers.
The seizure took place at Retín beach. During the night, officers located a recreational vessel stranded on the shore alongside twelve packages of hashish. The following morning, residents reported the presence of three other packages at different points in Zahara de los Atunes. The operation allowed all the merchandise located to be recovered.
The incident illustrates a reality that security forces have known for years: the arrival of summer does not reduce the interest of criminal organisations in this stretch of coast. Barbate and Zahara have conditions that these networks seek: strategic geographical position, proximity to North Africa and an extensive coastline with multiple points of access from the sea.
Logistical infrastructure behind each shipment
Each seizure requires a complete operational structure: vessels for transport, fuel, people responsible for receiving the merchandise, vehicles to move it and places to conceal it until distribution. For this reason, police investigations increasingly point to the overall infrastructure that sustains trafficking routes, not only to the moment when the drug reaches land.
One of the priority fronts is fuel supply. Drug-smuggling boats require large quantities of fuel, and organisations must guarantee supply before and after each operation. The so-called "petaqueo" — the supply of fuel to these vessels — has become one of the objectives of security forces in the Campo de Gibraltar and other points on the Cádiz coast.
Police pressure has forced networks to modify their methods. Over recent years they have demonstrated notable adaptability: they change unloading points, seek new transport routes and diversify the means used in each phase. The fight against the phenomenon has become a constant race between the detection capacity of security forces and the speed of organisations in replacing seized materials.
Barbate, sensitive location since the February 2024 crime
Barbate holds a particularly significant place in this scenario. The municipality became a symbol of the fight against drug trafficking following the murder of two Civil Guard officers in February 2024, when a drug-smuggling boat rammed the vessel in which the officers were located in the port. Since then, the town has continued to be the scene of police operations against various structures linked to drug trafficking.
Criminal activity is not limited to Barbate either. Zahara faces in August one of its moments of highest tourist influx, with thousands of people on its beaches daily and an intense cultural programme, whilst police activity continues to be deployed to prevent the coastline being used as an entry point for merchandise from North Africa.
This is not a new image. In September 2025, an unloading of packages of hashish on a Barbate beach was exposed to numerous bathers. The scene this summer confirms that the phenomenon persists, regardless of the time of year or the presence of tourists on the shore.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)