Security forces, in an operation coordinated by the Spanish Civil Guard, seized a sailboat from Brazil with almost 900 kilos of cocaine in waters close to the south of Senegal, in northwest Africa, when it was supposedly sailing towards Europe, and its three crew were detained.
The operation called 'Expósito' was carried out within the international project GDIN (Global Drug Intelligence Network), led by the Spanish armed institute, in which nine countries participate – Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama and United Arab Emirates -, which aims to combat drug trafficking, especially cocaine.
According to EFE sources close to the investigation, the French Navy approached the sailboat Princesa María Eleva last Monday afternoon, when it was sailing 500 nautical miles off the south coast of Senegal, supposedly bound for European territory.
There they seized 891 kilos of cocaine and arrested its three crew members: two Brazilians and one Moroccan. Investigators do not rule out making new arrests in the coming days.
It was precisely Brazil where the vessel departed and whose Federal Police alerted GDIN investigators, as a PF agent specialized in drug trafficking and assigned to the project learned that the sailboat intended to cross the Atlantic Ocean loaded with narcotics.
As soon as the sailboat approached the south of the Senegalese coast, as it was still very far from the Spanish Canary Islands, the Civil Guard requested support from the French Navy to complete the operation, in which it also collaborated with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA, in the English acronym).
The same sources indicate that, although they do not know if this was the case with this ship, since it was intercepted in time, it is increasingly common for part of the drug shipments that travel by sea from the other side of the Atlantic to make their first stop in the Senegal.
Its ports function as a logistical base, where they unload part of the goods so as not to lose them if they are located and detained on the way to Europe.
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