The luxury ferry, the Volcán del Teide, which operates a new passenger and goods service between the Canary Islands and Huelva, has not only opened up new possibilities for tourism, but also for contraband, El Mundo reports.

The ferry set sail on its first journey from the Canaries at the end of March and has made eight trips since then. It’s transported 5,000 passengers to Huelva in that time, but has also been used to transport 28,000 packets of contraband cigarettes.

The largest haul was last Friday when a Moroccan man was arrested with more than 20,000 packets in his van. Worth an estimated 85,000 €, he had hidden them inside second hand white goods which he said he’d bought in the Canaries to sell on in Morocco.

Four other passengers were arrested that day for attempting to smuggle contraband tobacco into the Peninsula.

SUSPECT who has been on the run for more than five years following an armed robbery in Colne has been arrested on the Costa del Sol.

Armed police swooped on Stephen Devalda, 28, while he was checking out of a hotel with friends in Marbella.

Devalda failed to attend his Burnley Crown Court trial for the 2005 robbery of a Royal Mail van at the Asda store, in Corporation Street, Colne.

He was accused of holding a gun to a security guard’s head and beating him with a machete while forcing him to hand over £25,000.

Detectives now say the net is closing in on his accomplice, Andrew Moran, also 28, who fled from the dock, at the same trial, after being convicted over the Pendle raid.

Earlier this year detectives also apprehended Devalda’s brother, 24-year-old Sean Devalda, in Amsterdam, who was on the run in relation to an armed attack on a Group 5 cash van in Agecroft, Salford, in February 2007.

Detectives had tracked Stephen Devalda to Thailand, from the Spanish resort, after his brother’s dramatic arrest.

But he later returned, on a false passport, and was detained at a Marbella hotel by armed officers, working with Spanish police, just after 5.45pm, local time, on Monday.

The brothers were targeted as part of a joint operation, codenamed Operation Gulf, conducted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and Greater Manchester Police.

Stephen Devalda is now being held in Spanish custody and is awaiting extradition proceedings back to the UK.

Matt Burton, SOCA spokesman, said: “The excellent co-operation of the Spanish police has led to the capture of Stephen Devalda.

“Now we have Andrew Moran in our sights.

“I am confident the net is closing in on him.”