MADRID, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- One of the most wanted drug smugglers in Spain turned himself in on Wednesday after two years on the run, the Spanish National Police force confirmed.
Francisco Tejon, who is thought to be the leader of one of the most important gangs dedicated to smuggling hashish into the south of Spain from Morocco, was arrested after his lawyers gave police the address of where he could be found.
Tejon's younger brother, Antonio had previously been detained in June during a police operation in the town of La Linea de la Conception (south-west Spain), which is considered as the center for drug trafficking in the region.
"His (Francisco) arrest means that the Policia Nacional have dismantled the top level of the biggest hashish-smuggling gang that operates in the Campo de Gibraltar area," confirmed the police.
They added that their search had been "ceaseless; with officers tracking the movements of Francisco's inner circle and managing to move closer and closer to the homes and addresses used".
The arrest comes just days after Tejon had surprisingly appeared in a music video with Cuban singer "Clase-A" for a song called "Candela" which was released earlier in October.
The video shows the singer and Tejon climb out of a Bentley car and then walk into a house filled with bikini wearing women and drinking champagne.
In another operation on Wednesday, National Police and Civil Guards confirmed they have dismantled another drug smuggling ring based around the town of Sanlucar de Barrameda (again in south-west Spain).
This operation led to the arrest of 14 people and the seizure of 1,241 kilos of hashish, 5 firearms, 5 boats, 5 vehicles and 3 motorbikes.
The police inform the gang used small ports to attempt to disguise their operations as fishing trips, but would rendezvous with high-speed launches which brought the hashish from Morocco, before returning to port "showing all of the kit from their supposed fishing trip".
Some 145,372 kilos of hashish were seized by Spanish police in 2017, compared to 100,423 kilos in 2016, according to a report in the Spanish El Pais newspaper and it is estimated that around 3,000 of the 64,000 inhabitants of La Linea, where they is 80 percent youth unemployment, are involved in drug smuggling in one way or another.
