The Spanish National police have broken up a drug smuggling ring which is thought to be have been in operation for around 15 years the Spanish Ministry of the Interior confirmed on Saturday.

Some 200 policemen were involved in 18 searches in the provinces of Cadiz and Malaga in southern Spain and made 21 arrests of people who face crimes against public health, money laundering, illegal possession of firearms and illicit association.

The investigation into a "group of Bulgarians, Croatians and Spaniards, based in Malaga and Cadiz" who had a "solid structure" began in 2015, the interior ministry said.

The first phase of the operation led to the detention of a truck with Estonian registration which had a false bottom containing 130,000 euros (around 150,000 US dollars), while the detention of a second tuck in the south of France led to the discovery of 111 kilos of hashish and a third, close to Malaga, which led to the discovery of 103 kilos of hashish.

source: Xinhua