Irishman allegedly tried to steal €200k of drugs he found floating in sea near Santa Ponsa
PUBLIC prosecutors have demanded a four-and-a-half year jail sentence for an Irishman who allegedly tried to steal more than €200,000 of cannabis he found floating in the sea off a Majorcan beach.
A pre-trial indictment drafted after the 24-year-old was charged accused him of wading into the water to pick up a 31 kilo bundle of hash "with the intention of selling the drugs."
He was arrested just after 3pm on October 24 2023 along with a second Spanish suspect aged 25 at a beach called Cala Blanca near the popular holiday resort of Santa Ponsa.
Santa Ponsa. Photo: Getty
News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday June 10
A security guard called police when he spotted them leaving the sea with the bale of cannabis, with Barcelona Football Club initials stamped on it, after it was abandoned by traffickers during a failed drug drop in a storm.
Cops found them soaking wet and sitting near a Volkswagen Golf with the same package hidden behind it after following a trail of blue raffia from the cannabis bale.
Spanish prosecutors, who valued the drugs at €211,967 in a three-page indictment, flagged up how the blundering alleged thieves had lost the keys to the car as they tried to 'flee the scene' with the drugs.
The suspects have been on bail for the past near two years since their arrests and appearance before an investigate magistrate who decided there was enough evidence to charge them with a drugs offence following a lengthy behind-closed-doors criminal probe.
Police had been placed on alert around the time they were held after drugs washed ashore in the Majorcan municipalities of Calvia and Andratx.
Officers were pictured at the time recovering a blue bale of cannabis with the initials FCB - Futbol Club Barcelona - stamped on it in black which appeared near the Brismar Hotel in Port Andratx.
Subsequent local reports said 19 bales had been recovered in just three days between October 21 and 24 2023.
Some holiday beaches were briefly cordoned off after the drugs washed ashore.
The cannabis resin finds were linked to a failed attempt to smuggle the drugs into one of the Balearic Islands during a storm.
As well as a lengthy prison sentence if they are convicted, public prosecutors are also seeking fines of €840,000 for each man.
It was not immediately clear this morning if the Irish national lives in Majorca or was holidaying in the area at the time, and when he will go on trial.
In October 2020 Spanish police seized an estimated £14 million of drugs thanks to Storm Barbara.
Nearly 90 bales of cannabis resin weighing three tons washed up on Isla Canela beach near Ayamonte close to Spain's south-west border with Portugal.
Police had to use several vehicles to move them.
A high-speed boat that had run aground and is thought to have been employed by the unlucky drugs smugglers was also seized so forensic experts could go over it for clues.
A number of young Brits including several women have been arrested in the last few weeks and accused of trying to smuggle drugs in different parts of the world.
A glamorous British OnlyFans model is languishing in prison near Barcelona after being caught trying to smuggle nearly £200,000 worth of drugs into Spain.
Clara Wilson, from Huthwaite, Notts, has been charged with a drug running offence after more than 34 kilos of cannabis were found in her suitcase at the Catalan capital's El Prat airport.
And the pretty 36-year-old has been warned she faces being caged for up to four years and ordered to pay more than £750,000 in fines if convicted.
Clara was held as she got off a Qatar Airways flight from Doha on January 20 although she is thought to have travelled to Barcelona from Bangkok with stopovers in India and Qatar.
She was remanded to prison two days after her arrest and has been held there ever since as part of her pre-trial detention.
British OAP William Eastman, 79, is currently languishing in a Chilean prison after being arrested at Santiago International Airport with five kilos of methamphetamine worth an estimated £200,000.
A 23-year-old British woman in Ghana was arrested last month after being accused of attempting to bring up to 18kg of cannabis into the UK on a May 18 British Airways flight to Gatwick.
Bella May Culley, 18, sparked a massive international search operation in early May after she was reported missing while she was believed to be holidaying in Thailand.
However, it was later revealed that the teen, from Billingham, County Durham, had been arrested 4,000 miles away on drug offences in Georgia, allegedly carrying 30 pounds (14kg) of cannabis into the ex-Soviet nation.
And recently 21-year-old Charlotte Lee May, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo after police discovered 46 kg of 'Kush' - a synthetic strain of cannabis - in her suitcase.
The former flight attendant, facing up to 25 years in prison if convicted, is claiming she had 'no idea' about the drugs worth up to £1.2 million and insisting they must have been planted in her luggage without her knowledge.
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