The Civil Guard, in coordination with the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, has seized 289 kilograms of cocaine that were transported in a merchant ship from Brazil, within the framework of the “Pride South” operation.
The drug was hidden in the ship's refrigeration system in 12 watertight bags secured with ropes. The operation began after learning that a cargo ship, which came from Brazil, could be being used to transport drugs to Europe.
As a result of the investigations, the agents were able to verify that said ship had declared the Port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as its next destination to later continue its journey to the Ports of Sete and Kopa, in France and Slovenia, respectively.
For this reason, once the ship arrived in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the ship's anchoring inspection was carried out.
As a result of the underwater inspection of the ship's hull, the existence of twelve watertight bags housed in a discreet place was verified, secured with ropes to one of the hull's grilles, so they were removed. Once in police custody, the check was carried out with the 'narcotest', resulting in a positive result for cocaine, and yielding a total weight of 289 kilograms distributed in numerous packages.
This operation is part of the joint work that is usually carried out to obtain information and evaluation to learn about the new routes and concealment methods used by criminal organizations to introduce cocaine from South America to Europe.
