The Civil Guard seizes 2 tons of hashish in a surprise raid on a popular beach in Spanish Andalusia

The POLICE have seized almost 2 tons of hashish after an early morning raid on two boats that disembarked on the popular Los Lances beach.

The two boats, loaded with 59 bales of hashish, arrived on Sunday at the Tarifa beach where a group of people were waiting to unload the drug.

But the Civil Guard arrived just as they were beginning to unload the cannabis resin, forcing them to disperse into the darkness.

Police officers searched the area and eventually arrested one person.

In the two boats they found 1,992 kilos of hashish that the police later seized.

The successful operation adds to the thousands of cannabis seizures made throughout the year.

They come mainly from the hashish-producing regions of northern Morocco.

The largest quantity of hashish found by the police in an operation so far was the 52 tons of hashish discovered in a warehouse in Córdoba.

In that operation, armed men tied up a man who was returning a popular rented elevator.

He escaped and called the police, who later set a European record for the most hashish found in one location.

High unemployment rates regularly draw people from southern Spain into the drug trade as a way to make ends meet.