Gang 'shipped out drugs' from Spain to Manchester inside boxes of BROCCOLI

Nine people have been arrested after police discovered drugs being smuggled from Spain to Manchester in boxes of frozen broccoli. Spanish police say three pallets were sent from Guadlajara, 40 miles north-east of Madrid, to Manchester - with one of the 'heads' of the gang involved travelling to the city as part of the operation.

It's believed cocaine and cannabis were being shipped out to the UK inside the boxes of broccoli. Following a two-year operation involving both the Spanish National Police and the UK's National Crime Agency, seven suspects are being held in Britain and two in Spain.

Officers seized two-and-a-half tonnes of cannabis and 187 kilos of cocaine during property searches and a raid on a warehouse in Guadalajara. In a first phase of the operation, codenamed Operation Balandro, detectives identified the companies the criminal organisation was using to smuggle the drugs into the UK and the suspects involved in storing and distributing the narcotics.

Subsequent drug interceptions were carried out by UK officers following tip-offs from Spanish police, allowing detectives to narrow down the number of firms involved to an initial four. The National Police released video footage on X today (December 29), showing investigators opening boxes of frozen broccoli containing the drugs - including blocks of cannabis labelled Banana Kush.

A spokesman for the National Police said: “Halfway through this year officers detected a new company from which the drugs were being sent, a fruit and veg import-export firm based in the province of Guadalajara. During surveillance work investigators identified the members of the criminal organisation who were going to the warehouse used as a storage facility, where the drug shipments