Making a dash for Europe: Immigrants are found wedged in tiny spaces between cars' dashboards and engines in a smuggling operation busted by Spanish police

Discoveries made at border between Morocco and Spanish enclave Melilla

All six were young men from Guinea and travelling without documents

Hidden in tiny spaces in the 'dashboard areas' and 'under the back seats'

Mafia networks operate in Morocco offering people passages into Spain

By IMOGEN CALDERWOOD FOR MAILONLINEand AGENCIES PUBLISHED: 20:39 GMT, 25 March 2016 | UPDATED: 23:28 GMT, 25 March 2016

Six migrants have been discovered hiding in cramped spaces in the false bottoms of vehicles operated by a mafia smuggling ring.

The discoveries were made by the Spanish Civil Guard over a two-day period on the border between Morocco and the north African Spanish enclave of Melilla.

All six were young men from Guinea and were travelling without documents, according to the Spanish authorities, while all three of the vehicles were found to have Moroccan number plates.

The first vehicle was a white Dacia, which the border police stopped to carry out an inspection.

The driver immediately sprang from the car and ran back towards the Moroccan border, managing to escape the police officers who pursued him.

Police used a heat detector to discover that there were people hidden in impossibly small spaces around the car, with one in the 'dashboard area' and two more 'under the back seat'.

They had to dismantle the car as the seats had been 'screwed down', according to a police statement.

Inside the seat, they discovered one of the youths to be needing medical treatment after showing signs of 'numbness, nervous breathing and profuse sweating'.

The second mafia-run vehicle was a Renault Clio, in which a young man was hiding between the motor and the dashboard and was suffering from similar symptoms.

The occupants of the vehicle were a Moroccan couple, who have been arrested pending further investigation.

The third car, a Mercedes 250 which was also driven by a Moroccan couple, revealed two hidden compartments, one under the dashboard and another in the back seat area.

Here, two hidden immigrants were discovered in a much worse state, with 'breathing difficulties and extreme weakness which meant they could barely stand'.

They were given medical attention and their condition is now stable.

According to authorities, almost every day border police find people hidden in vehicles.

However due to the vast amount of vehicles that pass through - between 5,000 to 8,000 every day - officers are only able to inspect those which raise suspicions or are randomly picked, in order to avoid huge queues at the border.

There are mafia networks which offer people passage into Spain - for huge amounts of money - by hiding them inside vehicles.

Read more: Spanish Civil Guard discover six immigrants hidden in the false bottoms of vehicles | Daily Mail Online