Record cocaine haul seized in Atlantic by Spanish police, union says

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Spanish constabulary person impounded what is believed to beryllium a nationalist grounds haul of cocaine from a vessel successful the Atlantic Ocean, with the seizure perchance reaching 40 tons, a national said connected Monday.

The Civil Guard intercepted the vas successful planetary waters disconnected Spain's Canary Islands connected Friday, with astir 20 radical arrested, sources from the force's main AUGC national told the Agence France-Presse.

It is estimated that "between 35 and 40 tons of cocaine person been seized" due to the fact that the clasp "was wholly stuffed" with bales of the drug, making it "a historical seizure," the sources said.

The boat, present being inspected successful the Canary Islands, had near Sierra Leone's superior Freetown for Benghazi successful Libya.

But the signifier of erstwhile specified operations suggests it was owed to offload the cause onto smaller vessels for organisation successful Europe due to the fact that "the unloading of this measurement of cocaine successful Libya doesn't marque overmuch sense."

"Many vessels would beryllium needed, antithetic ports, due to the fact that specified an unloading successful a azygous larboard would arouse a batch of suspicion. So the cognition is astir apt coordinated done planetary networks," the AUGC sources said.

Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters successful Madrid, including AFP, that the seizure "was 1 of the biggest, not lone nationally but internationally," without providing further details.

A tribunal bid means the probe is nether ineligible secrecy, the AUGC sources added. The Civil Guard declined to corroborate the details of the operation.

Spain's adjacent ties with Latin America and proximity to Morocco, a apical cannabis producer, marque it a cardinal introduction constituent for drugs into Europe.

In January, constabulary made their biggest seizure of cocaine astatine sea from a vessel that was carrying astir 10 tons of the drug.

Last October, Spanish constabulary seized 6.5 tons of cocaine and arrested 9 radical after a U.S. tip-off led them to raid a vessel disconnected the Canary Islands.

In June 2025, constabulary forces dismantled a cause trafficking ringing that utilized what authorities called high-speed "narco boats" to smuggle ample quantities of cocaine from Brazil and Colombia to the Canary Islands. The ringing allegedly used an abandoned shipwreck as a refueling level for the speedboats.

In 2024, Spanish constabulary impounded 13 tons of cocaine from a instrumentality vessel that had arrived astatine the confederate larboard of Algeciras from Ecuador, the country's largest-ever haul of the drug.

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