Tourism with an ex‑drug trafficker: Laureano Oubiña offers ‘narcotour’ to the spots where he once smuggled tobacco and hashish

Laureano Oubiña, a historic figure of smuggling and drug trafficking in Spain, doesn’t mind being called the Hashish King. But he closely scrutinizes everything journalists say about him in case someone forgets to put the “ex” before “trafficker,” even though judges have dismissed all his related lawsuits. “I have a popular jury on Instagram with 85,000 followers and I submit everything to their scrutiny so they can weigh in on what’s said about me,” Oubiña proclaims.

This native of the northwestern region of Galicia, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, spent three decades in prison over his criminal activities and, since his release in 2017, has written two books, sells Albariño wine, and markets a range of online products featuring designs that reference his long record dating back to Operation Nécora, a major police raid against drug trafficking in 1990. Now, at age 80, he wants to keep exploiting his past by acting as a tour guide aboard a boat that would take passengers along the Smuggling and Drug Trafficking Route — the same route he himself once used for smuggling tobacco and drugs.

But the the regional government, known as the Xunta de Galicia, has blocked the initiative, claiming it infringes tourism legislation because the tour is not being organized by a company specifically licensed for this kind of activity.

When Oubiña announced he had nearly sold out tickets — the boat can take up to 150 passengers, and each ticket is selling for €189 ($218) — the Xunta’s Tourism Inspection acted on its own initiative and determined that “in accordance with current regulations, [this activity] may only be carried out by a duly authorized travel agency.” Oubiña was warned that he would be committing a serious infraction if he went ahead with the “narcotour” as is, and given three weeks to legalize his project.

The inspection adds that the planned activity “also causes clear harm to Galicia’s tourist image, linking the projection of a territory to one of the most regrettable social events for its citizens and clearly affecting the quality tourism brand that has been consolidating for more than 30 years.”

The statement references Galicia’s history as a point of entry of drugs from Latin America into Europe. Although cocaine seizures haven’t yet reached the levels of 20 years ago, when they hit record highs, Galicia is currently experiencing another surge in shipments: more than 11.5 tons worth €800 million ($918 million) were seized in 2025.

“Hair-raising details”

“I can’t stop working; even if I won 20 billion euros in the lottery I’d still be doing things — if I get an idea, I go for it,” says the famous ex-convict, who feels that there is a demand for his latest project. “People who want to know — and there are many — will get on the boat and I’ll be there to explain in hair‑raising detail how I prepared the offloads, where we hid the cargo, or how we managed to throw the Civil Guard off the scent back when they could do very little with their Renault 6s,” notes Oubiña.

The way it is planned now, the tour would take a maximum of 150 people, including minors if the package is for families, on a one‑day voyage from O Grove (in the province of Pontevedra) to Ribeira (A Coruña), with a stop at Ons island and restaurant service for passengers. The tour would then go through the areas where hashish was once transported — some shipments weighing up to 15 tons — and reach the mouths of the Umia and Ulla rivers, where Oubiña wants to show how in the 1970s and 1980s he unloaded consignments of 1,200 boxes of tobacco with the help of sand‑carrier boats that covered the cargo with tarpaulins.

“There is no script; whoever wants to know what it was like should come and ask, and I will explain every detail flat out and without restraints because I already served my sentence many years ago, so many that my enemies thought I wouldn’t come out of it alive, but here I am to tell it,” Oubiña emphasizes.

Other routes

“If all goes well, and I’m sure it will, we will repeat the voyage,” says Oubiña, who is already planning other routes through Galicia’s upper estuaries to visit Muros, Costa da Morte (A Coruña), Lugo and parts of Portugal — places where the ex‑trafficker’s boats also used to land consignments.

It will essentially be a reconstruction of his career as a drug boss from 1970 to 2000, when, according to him, he drew a line, coinciding with his notorious escape to Greece the day he was sentenced to four years in prison. He was extradited to Spain 13 months later, when Interpol captured him near Athens.

“And other ideas may still come up,” he adds.

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