Spain’s second largest ever seizure of designer club drug “Tusi”

Spain’s, so far, second largest consignment of the pink drug concoction has been intercepted at Gran Canaria airport. A 22-year-old passenger from Belgium was stopped, by Customs Surveillance and Guardia Civil, with an estimated ten kilos of the drug, writes A. Castilian in Spanish language daily, La Provincia

Last Tuesday, Customs Surveillance and the Guardia  Civil intercepted a consignment of, what is known as, “pink cocaine” at Gran Canaria airport after they stopped a 22-year-old passenger who had arrived with 10.22 kilos of the drug, also known as Tusi , with an approximate market value of one million euros, according to the authorities. The traveller, who has been jailed accused of a crime against public health for drug trafficking, was also carrying two kilos of heroin.

The operation took place last Tuesday afternoon when security forces received a notice from Belgian customs authorities about a possible load of narcotic substance being transported by a young man who was arriving on a flight from Brussels. The Las Palmas Customs Surveillance Operational Unit together with the Guardia Civil at Gran Canaria’s main airport then set up an operation to locate the owner of the suspicious suitcase, as was confirmed by both teams in a joint press release.

Once inside the terminal, the young man, of Dutch nationality, was stopped, having collected the piece of luggage at the arrivals terminal. When agents proceeded to analyse the contents of the suitcase, they saw a large bag containing a pink substance weighing more than ten kilos alongside several other packages that were suspected to be another drug, weighing two kilos. The agents carried out a first analysis of both substances: the first one tested positive for MDMA or ecstasy, one of the components with which Tutsi is made; and the second was confirmed as positive for heroin.

Arrest
Given the evidence, agents proceeded to arrest the passenger, alleged to be the perpetrator of a drug trafficking crime. The arrested man was put at the disposal of Telde Investigating Court number 2, last Thursday, where he was ordered to be further detained, according to the sources consulted.

The ten kilo shipment of Tusi is now the second largest of the substance so-far seized in Spain, with the largest having been intercepted last summer, in Ibiza, weighing 13 kilos, during an operation which led to 12 people being detained. This drug is made up of various substances often including the likes of MDMA, LSD or ketamine, or powerful pain relief drugs such as oxycodone, with varied effects including visual and auditory hallucinations.

€100 per gram
Consumption appears to be quite exclusive due to its high price: estimated at around €100 per gram, but it has been doing the rounds since at least the summer, and sources suggest that this batch was destined to supply the market throughout the Archipelago.

This is by far the largest seizure of Tusi to date, anywhere in the Archipelago. Last June, the Policia Nacional and the Policia Local in Santa Lucía, carried out Operation Titan resulting in the arrest of a businessman, from the automotive sector, holding 136 doses of Tusi, as well as cocaine, amphetamine, crystal and Viagra, in addition to a 4.5 caliber pistol. In August, police detained a 21-year-old young man, at a police control, from whom, among other substances, they seized 1.6 grams of cocaine in the south of Tenerife. And in Lanzarote, the Local Police of Tías seized a small amount of this substance on three people in Puerto del Carmen.

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