Spanish police and customs officials have seized 3.3 tonnes of cocaine on a Venezuelan fishing boat intercepted in late November west of the Canary Islands, detaining its ten crew members, authorities reported on Saturday.
The vessel, which was sailing without lights, was stopped 1,800 kilometres west of the Canary Islands on 29 November, according to a statement from the national police and customs surveillance service.
During the operation, led by the specialised anti-drug prosecutor’s office, 110 bales of cocaine weighing around 30 kilograms each were seized.
The ten crew members, all Venezuelan nationals except for one Colombian, were arrested and taken to the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, one of the main cities in the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa.
The investigation, a joint operation between the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and police forces from Spain, Brazil, and Portugal, began in mid-November when the DEA learned that an “international criminal organisation” was attempting to transport a large quantity of cocaine across the Atlantic.
The boat was supposed to transfer the drugs at sea to another fishing vessel, likely flying a Spanish flag and heading towards Spanish shores. Authorities had already located the vessel and observed the crew throwing “a series of packages consistent with those typically used for drug trafficking” overboard when agents arrived.
Following the arrests and drug seizure, the fishing boat was sunk due to its “precarious condition,” which made it impossible to tow to port, police explained.
