The Guardia Civil, the National Police, and the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency intercepted a semirigid boat 500 nautical miles south of the Canary Islands while it was transporting approximately 4,350 kilograms of cocaine.
The operation began through international collaboration, based on information exchange between MAOC-N (Atlantic Analysis and Operations Centre) and CITCO (Counterterrorism and Organized Crime Intelligence Centre). The investigation, conducted by Customs Surveillance, the National Police, and the Guardia Civil, followed this conduit of information.
In the effort, the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States participated. As a result of that information sharing, investigators suspected a suspicious vessel linked to drug trafficking from South America, believed to be part of a broader international operation that would cross the Atlantic and reach European shores, including Spain.
Consequently, the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency established an air and sea monitoring deployment to locate the target vessel.
Following the interception and boarding of the narco-boat, the cargo was immediately verified to be 4,350 kilograms of cocaine. Four crew members were arrested, including a Galician narcotrafficker known to the security forces. The detainees are a Spanish national, a Romanian, a Moroccan, and a Moldovan.
For use in the Atlantic, this type of vessel requires regular support for water, provisions, and fuel. Those resources are supplied by other sport, fishing, or semirigid boats of the same type.
The operation is not closed and investigators continue to assess the possible presence of additional vessels in the area that could be involved. The intervention was directed and coordinated by the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court.
Both the detainees and the vessel, along with the narcotic substance, will be placed at the disposal of the Central Court of Instruction. The operation took place within the framework of the fight against drug trafficking along the so‑called Atlantic cocaine route, known for being used by all types of vessels coming from South America to transship the controlled substances in the mid‑Atlantic before their entry into the European continent.