Malaga Airport: Passenger boarding flight to Manchester Airport arrested after police find 13kg of drugs in suitcase

A passenger, who was about to board a flight to Manchester Airport from Malaga Airport in Spain, was arrested after he was found carrying more than 13kg of drugs in his luggage. The discovery was made on 7 April during security checks carried out on hold luggage.

Spain’s Guardia Civil police force said in a statement that a suitcase was detected which led officers to suspect that it might contain drugs. The police put in place an operation to detain the owner of the luggage, who was located when he was about to board the flight.

The owner of the luggage was a 40-year-old Latvian man. He was arrested for a crime against public health after he was found to be carrying 13kg of hashish. Hashish, commonly shortened to hash, is consumed as a psychoactive drug by smoking, typically in a pipe, bong, vaporizer or joint.

When the suitcase was opened, some 1,336 hashish pellets were found inside, distributed in 14 vacuum-sealed packages with a total weight of 13.876 kilograms. It comes after Spanish police announced on Friday 26 April that it seized 25 tons of hashish, worth 50 million euros, that was hidden in a truck from Morocco.

According to a statement from the police, it is the biggest seizure of hashish found in a vehicle in Spain since 2015 when police found nearly 48 tons in two trucks, also in the port of Algeciras. Police arrested the driver of the truck who has been brought before a judge for questioning.