Lorraine Williamson
Police have found a second narcotunnel in Ceuta in a major anti-drug operation centred on the Tarajal industrial estate, close to the border with Morocco. Europa Press, citing judicial sources, reported on Sunday that the newly discovered tunnel was being examined while officers continued work in the area.
The discovery turns an already significant trafficking investigation into an even bigger story. What had begun as a large-scale operation against a hashish network now appears to have uncovered another underground route allegedly used to bypass border controls and move drugs from Morocco into Spanish territory.
A fast-moving investigation with rising arrest numbers
One reason this case is developing so quickly is that the numbers have shifted as the operation has unfolded. On Friday, 27 March, the Policía Nacional said more than 250 officers had been deployed in Ceuta, Andalucia and Galicia, with 29 searches carried out and 15 arrests so far. El País later reported at least 16 arrests, including a former Guardia Civil officer. By Sunday, Europa Press said judicial sources were putting the figure at 20 arrests in Ceuta, while the wider operation remained open.
That widening tally matters because it shows this was not a small local police action. Investigators say they were dismantling a broad Ceuta-based structure that moved hashish produced in Morocco towards Spain and France, using support networks that reached beyond the enclave itself.
Why Ceuta is central to the case
According to the Policía Nacional, the network under investigation had built what officers described as a large and complex infrastructure in Ceuta, giving it the capacity to import tonnes of hashish with relative security before sending it onwards. The same police statement says investigators had already intercepted an earlier 15,000-kilo hashish shipment in Almería, linking the operation directly to Andalucia as well as Ceuta.
El País reported that the group allegedly relied on a major trafficker from La Línea de la Concepción to move high-speed boats towards the African coast and help ensure the drug crossed the Strait. That gives the story a wider southern Spain angle and reinforces how closely Ceuta, the Campo de Gibraltar and other trafficking routes remain connected.
The second tunnel changes the picture
The newly found passage was located in the same Tarajal area where the Guardia Civil uncovered another narcotunnel in February 2025 during Operation Hades. Europa Press said the new structure is being analysed with support from emergency crews because parts of it are flooded. El País had already reported on Saturday that officers and firefighters were pumping water out of industrial units in the same area while searching for another tunnel.
That makes this more than a routine seizure story. A second tunnel in roughly the same zone suggests the 2025 discovery was not an isolated engineering feat but part of a deeper smuggling problem around Ceuta’s border-adjacent industrial estate. That is an inference based on the location of the new find and the history of the earlier tunnel.
What police say they have already seized
The Policía Nacional said officers had already seized nearly €1.5 million and 66 communications devices in the wider operation. El País also reported that police carried out searches in multiple parts of Ceuta, including homes, a garage and a shisha lounge, while the force described the network as one with enough infrastructure to move large volumes of hashish safely and repeatedly.
For readers, that is the point where the story shifts from dramatic imagery to national significance. This is not just about one hidden passage underground. It is about the scale, planning and persistence of cross-border drug trafficking networks operating between Morocco, Ceuta and mainland Spain.
A border story Spain cannot ignore
Ceuta has long been one of the places where geography, organised crime and border control collide. The discovery of a second tunnel in Tarajal will sharpen questions about how much infrastructure traffickers may still have in place and how long it has been operating out of sight. For now, the clearest confirmed picture is that police have found another suspected narcotunnel, the arrest count has grown as the operation has continued, and the case stretches well beyond the enclave into Andalucia and Galicia.