Two pilots are dead after a helicopter attempting to smuggle nearly a ton of hashish into the Malaga province of Spain crashed on Tuesday into an electricity pylon during a police chase.

The bodies of the two pilots were badly burned, and police recovered them near Cortes de la Frontera. 

The charred remains have been transferred to the Forensic Medicine Institute of Malaga.

The local Spanish media has reported that up to a ton of hashish was recovered by the authorities.

As reported by the RT news site, the Spanish police informed the AFP that they were “working to determine how much hashish was on board.”

The drug that was in the process of being smuggled, hashish, or hash, is a product of cannabis composed of compressed ingredients of THC and other chemical compounds that act on cannabinoid receptors.

The crash occurred after a Guardia Civil helicopter was hastily trying to chase down a black-colored helicopter that was camouflaged and going down an unauthorized flight path.

The officers lost sight of the helicopter during the intense chase. They returned to their base. 

Upon morning, the investigating authorities flew over to the last known position of the hashish-filled helicopter, and there they discovered the wreckage and the dead pilots.

The helicopter, which was split into several pieces, was terribly damaged; its parts were suspended in the middle of bushes.

Along with 30 packages of hashish, two corpses were recovered from the wreckage.

Spanish police are currently investigating where the recovered drugs originated from.

Due to a close vicinity to North Africa, most cases of drug smuggling to the southern part of Spain come through directly from Morocco.

According to the RT article, Spanish authorities have seized, since June of 2013, more than 100 tons of hashish in various narcotics operations.