Agents of the Civil Guard, in a joint operation with the National Police and the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, intercepted in waters near Cape Verde a narco-sailing vessel heading to the Canary Islands with 200 kilos of cocaine. Within the framework of an international operation against drug trafficking, under the coordination of Ameripol and the American agency DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), in which the Spanish Navy, Brazilian and French authorities collaborated.
During the operation, the two crew members of the vessel were arrested, coming from South America and heading to the Canary Islands. The operation culminated with the arrest of the two crew members and their transfer (together with the sailboat) to the Canary Islands, where it was searched. Although a criminal group specialized in the introduction and distribution of large quantities of cocaine in Europe through the Canary Islands has been dismantled, the investigation remains open and further arrests are not ruled out.
An investigation that began last year when, through international police cooperation channels, agents became aware of the arrival in Spain of several members of a criminal organization in search of contacts, in the Canary Islands, to carry out an import of cocaine hydrochloride.
The National Police, together with the Spanish Navy, prepared a naval device with the aim of locating the vessel. This ended with the boarding of the sailboat in safe conditions by the Special Operations Group (GEO), in which agents of the Civil Guard and officials of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency also collaborated, locating numerous packages of cocaine hidden in the ship.
With the first police actions, they identified the person who was going to direct the operation in Las Palmas to charter a sailboat from South America. The identification of the captain of the ship, a citizen of French origin with ties to the Canary Islands, allowed the detection of a sailboat of almost 19 meters in length with a Polish flag. From that moment on, the actions were coordinated through the liaison officer in Ameripol. The deployment of actions in several countries, mainly in Brazil, but also in Colombia and Uruguay, together with the National Police of Spain and the French authorities, allowed the identification of several members of the
criminal organization in origin.
With the progress of the investigations, the transfer of the investigated born in the Canary Islands, head of the Spanish group that was going to receive the cocaine, to Brazil was accredited to command himself and coordinate from the water the import of the narcotic substance. Once they had everything planned, the two investigated left Brazil and began sailing towards the Spanish coasts. The boarding of the sailboat was done in international waters northwest of Cape Verde.
