By Deutsche Welle
The Spanish justice system confirmed this Thursday a record seizure of 30 tons of cocaine in an operation that included the arrest of the 23 crew members of the ship on which the cache was found.
The Arconian, flying the flag of the Comoros Islands, was intercepted by the Civil Guard on May 1 with a cargo that the National Court valued at more than 812 million euros (956 million dollars).
In addition to more than almost 1,300 bales of drugs, the Civil Guard also seized “weapons of war” on board the vessel, the agency said in a statement.
European record
Among those detained, 17 are of Filipino nationality, five are Dutch and the last is from Suriname, he explained. The operation, carried out in collaboration with authorities from the United States and the Netherlands, will be detailed by the police this Friday.
This seizure dwarfs the 25 tons recovered by German police in the port of Hamburg, Germany, in June 2024, will have the largest seizure in Europe, and more than doubles Spain’s own record, set at 13 tons found last year.
Investigators believe that the cocaine was going to be transferred to high-speed boats on the high seas to be smuggled into mainland Spain.
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