Agents of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the National Police, in a joint operation with the American agency DEA, the Judicial Police of Portugal and the Federal Police of Brazil, have managed to seize 3,300 kilos of cocaine, distributed in 110 bales of the drug of about 30 kilos each, after boarding a fishing boat 1,852 kilometers (1,000 nautical miles) west of the Canary Islands.
The boarding, carried out by members of the Customs Surveillance Special Operations Vessel ‘Petrel’, has also detained the ten crew members of the Venezuelan-flagged fishing vessel, which could not withstand the tow to port due to the “precarious conditions in which he found himself“, as reported by the Tax Agency and the National Police in a press release.
This intervention occurred after the agents began an investigation in November after receiving a information from the American agency DEAwhich warned that an international criminal organization intended to transport a large amount of cocaine across the Atlantic Ocean.
It was also indicated that the mother ship was a fishing-type vessel, flying the Venezuelan flag, which presumably had already departed from some point on the South American coast in the direction of the Spanish coast. It is from that moment on that agents from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency coordinated with the National Police the corresponding actions to intercept the vessel “as soon as possible.”
Thus, “a few days later,” the DEA reported that the vessel was sailing to transfer the drugs it was transporting to another fishing boatprobably flying the Spanish flag, which would be found fishing in the area to which it was heading.
In this case, the intelligence work allowed us to conclude that, once the drug was in the receiving shipthis would head towards the Spanish coasts to stash it.
With this information, end of novemberagents from the National Police and the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, under the direction of the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court, coordinated the operation to locate the investigated vessel.
Once the alert was received, the course of the fishing vessel was facilitated and the crew’s modus operandi was known, the early intersection was designed as the “most effective scenario to prevent” the drug from being diverted in a diversified manner to Spain and, therefore, ensure the seizure of cocaine.
Finally, on November 29, the Customs Surveillance Special Operations Vessel ‘Petrel’ detected the vessel, sailing without lights and heading to Spain, which due to its characteristics indicated that it was the wanted fishing vessel. Once intercepted, the agents verified that the crew was throwing a series of packages over the stern compatible with those usually used for drug transportation.
Once on board, the ‘Petrel’ prey crew located a total of 110 bales of narcotics, about 30 kilos eachwhose total weight exceeded 3,300 kilos. Likewise, its 10 crew members were arrested, all of them of Venezuelan nationality except for a Colombian citizen.
Finally, they indicated that given the precarious conditions in which the vessel was found, which had at least two open waterways and made it impossible to tow it to port, and the danger it implied for the people who were on board, they proceeded to its sinking, while those arrested and the drugs seized were transferred to the Port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
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