They seized an unprecedented narcodrone that crossed the Mediterranean carrying up to 150 kilos of drugs from Africa to Europe

Police seized what is believed to be Europe’s largest drug drone, which was used by a French smuggling gang to smuggle drugs from Morocco to southern Spain.

The drone, a Mugin 4450, has a flight range of seven hours and a top speed of over 100 mph, and has a wingspan of nearly five meters. Worth up to $ 151,000, it is capable of carrying up to 150kg of cargo in a special compartment on its nose.

“We have never seen such a large drone used for this purpose. There have been precedents, but not like that. It is the largest ever found in Spain “Pedro Luis Bardón, of the National Police’s Air Resources Unit, told Spanish newspaper El País.

Made in China, the five-motor drone was discovered in a warehouse inside the city of Malaga, in southern Spain, during a joint investigation by Spanish and French police. Police also found 85 kilograms of marijuana and hashish, while four people, three in France and one in Spain, were arrested during the operation.

The stretch of sea between Morocco and southern Spain is one of the busiest drug trafficking areas in Europe, with large quantities of Moroccan marijuana and South American cocaine smuggled from Africa to Europe. A course that the drone is able to cover without problem thanks to its 7 hours of flight autonomy and its speed of 120 km / h.

And not only that, a plane of this type could cover the entire southern half of Spain without too many problems if sent from a strategically appropriate location in Morocco.

The capture of such a sophisticated drone follows the discovery of a network of smugglers who use a fleet of small drones to transport drugs from Morocco to Cueta, an autonomous Spanish town on the North African coast.

Police found seven drones, each with a carrying capacity of between four and 25 kg, as well as a supply of drugs and weapons, including an HK assault rifle.

The drones had been used to smuggle illicit benzodiazepine tablets into Morocco from Cueta and to bring hashish grown in Morocco on the way back.

This is not the only way drug traffickers have to distribute drugs across Europe, as in March police discovered it was under construction in Malaga. a 30-foot-long fiberglass narco-submarine capable of carrying two tons of illegal drugs.

Since 2019, when the first narco-submarine was discovered off the Spanish coast, the authorities have succeeded in identifying several of these carrier vessels as a crucial element of the trafficking networks on the old continent. They are presumed to have been used long before this first discovery. The same is now happening with narcodrones.

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