National Police and Customs caught a new “narcoship” this week. Agents approached “Orion V”. He was cruising 62 miles southwest of the Canary Islands. It carried about 2,000 cows and about 4,500 kilos of cocaine, which was distributed in one hundred and a half bales, hidden among cattle feed. There are 28 detainees, and although none of them are Spanish, investigators suspect the stash is linked to a Galician organization. In fact, this ship was already on the police radar when the Santorum brothers, a family from Arousa who had been tracking drug trafficking for years, were arrested in spring 2020.
“Orion V” left Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) and planned to stop in Ceuta before continuing its journey to its final destination in Libya. Probably before him, drug traffickers tasked with unloading drugs would come to greet him. And it is believed that probably the Galician “lancheros” were responsible for the transfer.
The “Orion V” waving the Togo flag was already registered in June 2020. Later it was called “Spiridon”.and, according to the DEA, the United States anti-drug agency, it was a “drug ship” on whose deck large quantities of cocaine were transported from South America to Europe via the so-called Atlantic-African route. The agents then went after the Santorum clan, suspecting it was one of the boats they used to ship drugs. Just a month ago, the Togo-flag ship “MV Fikir” was seized, carrying around four tons of cocaine and connected to the two brothers from Arousa.
Police believed the organization was perhaps trying to make up for its failure on “Decision” with a new stash of “Spiridon”. However, on this occasion, careful search did not bear any fruit. That didn’t help the anti-drug forces overlook him, convinced that the cattle transport was just a cover-up.
Arrested from Tanzania, Syria, Colombia and Nepal
“Orion V” was boarded on the high seas last Tuesday, January 24, after being spotted by the following air-water craft. The embarkation took place from “Fulmar”, a Customs Surveillance vessel. after finding the medicine 28 crew members of cargo ship arrested. They are citizens of nine different countries: ten Tanzanian, five Syrian, four Kenyan, two Ecuadorian, two Panamanian, two Colombian, one Dominican, one Nepali, and one Nicaraguan. The National Court took charge of the investigation of the case and ordered that anyone arrested at sea go to jail. The ship has already docked at Las Palmas, where the medicine is lifted with the support of cranes. One thing the authorities must now determine is the destination of the 2,000 cattle to be delivered to Libya.
They stress from the National Police, “International organizations are reinventing themselves when it comes to shipping drugs from Latin America to Europe., using live cattle to make them harder to control and find”. Even agents involved in the intervention of “Orion V” had great difficulty locating the drug. This operation took place only six days after the intervention of Blume, who was also sailing near the Canary Islands at the time. Likewise, “Mambo”, a sailboat carrying 2.5 tons of cocaine, was caught in early December. At least two people from Arousa were arrested in the operation.
Source: Informacion
James Sean is a writer for “Social Bites”. He covers a wide range of topics, bringing the latest news and developments to his readers. With a keen sense of what’s important and a passion for writing, James delivers unique and insightful articles that keep his readers informed and engaged.