Customs recover £2m worth of cannabis resin at sea

Over 400 kilos of cannabis resin, with a street value of more than £2million, was recovered from Gibraltar waters on Wednesday morning.

HM Customs Marine Unit recovered 13 bales of cannabis resin from the sea with the assistance of the Gibraltar Defence Police and the Department of the Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change and Heritage.

At around 9.30am on Wednesday morning, Customs received information of a suspect rigid inflatable boat navigating at speed through British Gibraltar Territorial Waters.

The vessel was pursued by Customs Officers in HMC Searcher, but the RHIB began to carry out evasive manoeuvres while those on board began to throw the bales of cannabis resin into the sea.

The suspect vessel gained distance through the rough easterly seas and exited BGTW, at this point HMC Searcher aborted the chase, Customs said in a statement.

A total of 13 bales of cannabis resin were retrieved from the sea during a search conducted in the area together with together with the Gibraltar Defence Police and the Department of the Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change and Heritage.