Eight tons of hashish hidden in an industrial warehouse in a small town in the Empordà

BarcelonaEight tons of hashish are worth approximately 16.2 million euros on the illegal market. And this entire hoard of drugs was hidden in an industrial warehouse in a small municipality in the Alt Empordà, in Cabanes. The Mossos d'Esquadra discovered it on October 1st and it has been an intervention that has quickly become one of the most significant regarding drug trafficking this year: in 2026, 15 tons of this drug have been seized, and more than half come from this operation.

The hashish was hidden in the legal cargo of a semi-trailer, camouflaged among raffia sacks loaded with shredded rubber. The intervention led to the arrest of seven men between 29 and 55 years old, members of a criminal group dedicated to the trafficking of this substance. The judge decreed provisional prison without bail for four of the arrestees and with bail for three others. This operation has led the Minister of Interior, Núria Parlon, to once again call for a hardening of the penalties related to marijuana trafficking.

The investigation began in June of last year, following a police operation in Viladecans (Baix Llobregat) in which the police intercepted a van transporting nearly 2,400 kilos of hashish. Later on, the agents determined that the drugs in the vehicle came from a warehouse in Alt Empordà. Around this building, the Mossos established surveillance points that allowed them to detect unusual activity in its vicinity. They identified several people and vehicles that accessed it from time to time, but no business or labor activity was observed there. They also detected movements that appeared to be loading and unloading operations.

Key moment

At the beginning of October, during a surveillance operation, agents discovered activity different from what had been observed until then: repeated movements of people and vans and the arrival of an articulated truck. At the same time, they saw several people manipulating the original license plates of the vehicles and attaching others with cable ties. Then they drove the trailer inside the warehouse and closed the door. It was then that the Mossos decided it was the opportune moment to enter.

With the support of ARRO agents, investigators entered the warehouse and found seven people unloading pallets from the trailer with the intention of placing the hashish into different vans for subsequent distribution. Also during the search, the agents found a firearm inside one of the detainees' vans.

The eight tons in Empordà is a significant intervention, but not the highest in the history of the Mossos. In 2025, in the Tarragona region, 14 tons of hashish were seized, of which 9.2 correspond to an intervention in an industrial warehouse where the drugs were stored. In 2024, 13.5 tons of hashish were seized in a single operation in Girona.

"The criminal response must be adapted to the reality of the phenomenon, especially when there are international organized crime networks," Parlon assessed, reacting to this police intervention. The minister has committed to fighting drug trafficking by standing up to "the logistical and economic structures that sustain it." In this sense, she warned this Friday of the risks of marijuana consumption and the effects of drug trafficking on public health, coexistence, and security. For this reason, the head of the Interior Department has opted to "combine prevention, health protection, specialized investigation, and penalties proportional to the gravity of the facts".