SMUGGLERS sent thousands of euros' worth of drugs to the UK in boilers via a courier firm based in Sevilla, says the Guardia Civil.
Officers were alerted by their Catalunya regional counterparts, the Mossos d'Esquadra, who had intercepted four large packages in Sabadell (Barcelona province) containing water heaters and which, on closer inspection, turned out to be carrying 16 kilos of cannabis each.
They had come from a delivery firm in Sevilla, so National Police and the Guardia Civil kept watch over the premises to try to catch the culprits on site.
Colluding with the courier firm, officers asked staff there to contact the original senders and explain there would be a delay in the giant parcels reaching the UK.
Through this, police were able to trace the senders to the nearby town of Alcalá del Río.
Watching over the house the call was made to, officers saw a group of Chinese nationals carrying a boiler similar to the one uncovered in Sabadell into the property.
Three of the clan involved were arrested when they tried to make it to Madrid, from where they had planned to leave the country.
A search on the Alcalá del Río property revealed a boiler packaged and ready to send to Glasgow, Scotland, together with several kilos of marijuana, fake ID cards and driving licences, three top-of-the-range cars, and €10,360 in cash as proceeds from the overseas sales.
In total, 11 Chinese nationals were arrested, none of whom were legal residents in Spain.
They have no existing criminal records, but as they were considered a flight risk, they have all been remanded in custody.
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