Ukrainian pilots leading drug smuggling gang across Strait of Gibraltar
Spanish police have broken up a drug trafficking ring that used elite Ukrainian helicopter pilots to fly drugs across the Strait of Gibraltar in daring low-level night flights.
Guardia Civil officers arrested two Ukrainians as they attempted to escape after they landed a helicopter in a field near Chiclana de la Frontera in southern Spain.
The operation took place in January but details of the arrests and the drug trafficking ring’s tactics have only just emerged.
One pilot has been identified as Vitor Blaha, a former Ukrainian police colonel, who is accused of piloting the helicopter, which was carrying just under 800 kilograms of cannabis resin.
A third man, a Moroccan national resident in Spain, died near the location where the helicopter landed after crashing his car as he attempted to flee.
A total of nine arrests were made in the operation, including two men the Guardia Civil described as expert pilots. As well as the helicopter containing drugs, a French-made Alouette III, a similar aircraft was also seized in a nearby location.
Among those arrested are believed to be mechanics who maintain the helicopters using parts brought in from former Soviet Union countries.
The gang’s smuggling route involved flying across the Strait to northern Morocco, where the drugs were loaded.
The pilots would then return to Spain at night, travelling at a height of no more than 30 metres above sea level without using the helicopter’s lights and with navigation systems turned off to avoid electronic detection.
According to investigators, a helicopter such as the one Mr Blaha was piloting that night is “virtually undetectable because it flies so low that the mountains cause the waves received by Spanish radars to be lost”.
“Those on board during these flights are taking a great risk,” the investigators added.
The fee charged by a pilot such as Mr Blaha is believed to be around €150,000 per flight.
The operation started when the Guardia Civil became aware of a helicopter leaving an unspecified location in Cádiz province to fly south. The officers coordinated with Moroccan police to track the aircraft and as it returned northward into Spanish airspace, where a Guardia Civil helicopter took up pursuit and coordinated with officers on the ground to intercept the suspects once they had landed.
Around 30 bundles of hashish were stored in a space behind the pilot where the rear seats had been removed.
A cargo of 800 kilograms of hashish could have a street value in Spain of around €4 million. The Guardia Civil said in a statement that the cost of buying a helicopter such as those used by the gang is around €900,000.
