€30m drug gang boss known as ‘Chestnuts’ jailed for 6 years: How 43-year-old ‘idolized’ Antonio Tejon secured heavy prison sentence after ‘historic’ trial in southern Spain Did you avoid it?

A notorious drug lord has been sentenced to more than six years in prison after the biggest drug trafficking trial in Spain’s history.

Antonio Tejon, leader of the Chestnut smuggling clan, or Las Castañas, will also have to pay a fine of €1 million each in two installments.

The 43-year-old is considered a threat to public health under Spanish law and was found guilty of leading a large-scale hashish trafficking operation using boats.

The ruling also found Taejon guilty of recidivism and being a member of a criminal organization.

However, he was released on charges of smuggling and receiving illegal goods, for which prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison sentence and a fine of more than 200 million euros.

Tejon’s imprisonment is part of a broader anti-drug-trafficking initiative by the Cádiz provincial court, which saw a total of 97 criminals sentenced to a total of 280 years in prison.

Tejon and his brother Isko worked together to run one of the largest gangs operating across the Strait of Gibraltar, formerly known as the ‘Hashish Kings’.

However, in 2020, a Guardia civil operation revealed that at least 9,000 kilograms of hashish had arrived on the Andalusian coast from Morocco, leading to Mr Tejon’s arrest.

Taejeon is reported to have been directing the operation from prison, where he is serving a sentence for minor drug trafficking charges.

According to prosecutors, Taejeon took advantage of prison visits by related parties to issue orders before he was released.

Additionally, his family relied on a network of embankments, fishing boats, drones, tractors, and trucks to illegally import drugs into Spain.

Four months before the hearing, Tejon was acquitted in another case related to two hashish interceptions in La Linea de la Concepción.

The two brothers are reportedly “idolized” in the city, especially among young people. The region’s code of silence helped protect the clan as it expanded its smuggling operations.

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