The Civil Guard has intercepted in international waters about 88 miles west of the island of La Palma a sailboat loaded with a ton of cocaine, proceeding to the arrest of the three crew members of Croatian nationality, all with a history linked to drug trafficking and arms trafficking.
The investigation, led by the National Court, began last February and has focused on a "novel African route", which has led the Civil Guard to verify that the presence in Spain of members of criminal gangs from Eastern Europe in charge of this type of transoceanic trips is becoming "more consolidated".
Specifically, it refers to citizens of Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia or Croatia who are located in strategic areas such as the Canary Islands, Galicia and the south of the Peninsula. "The trend that points to criminal organizations in this area as responsible for many of the cocaine imports in Europe is consolidated," the Civil Guard said when reporting on 'Operation Falkusa'.
Under the direction of the National Court, the investigation has allowed several searches to be carried out in parallel in Croatia after agents from the Central Anti-Drug Group of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) pulled the thread of various information about the 'Majic' vessel of Croatian flag, which, in the opinion of the agents, would directly link it to the international trafficking of narcotic substances on a large scale.
The boarding of the 'Majic' was carried out in the early morning of last Wednesday. 980 packages of cocaine were found in several rooms of the sailboat. The collaboration of the Croatian authorities was essential for this, which made it possible to establish that the vessel departed at the end of February from Dubroknic to Montenegro.
Then it was located upon arrival at the Port of Almería, from where it moved to the island of Lanzarote, all under discreet surveillance by the Organized Crime Team (ECO) of the Canary Islands.
The surveillance allowed to identify all its crew members based on that island, as well as to know their intention to set course for Caribbean waters in a short period of time. French (DNRED), British (NCA), American (DEA) and Dutch authorities, as well as the Europol agency, joined the police investigations.
The coronavirus delayed the loading of the drug
As a result of this international coordination, the Civil Guard corroborated that the investigated vessel was in waters of the Island of Barbados and later of the Island of Martinique at the beginning of the month of April.
The crew of the 'Majic' underwent several health checks due to the coronavirus pandemic, which caused them to desist at first from any attempt to load drugs in those circumstances. For this reason they returned to the Canary archipelago, specifically to the port of Arrecife in Lanzarote, in the first days of June.
From that moment on, the three crew members of the 'Majic' separated to different points of the European continent, meeting again on that same island in mid-August, where they were again monitored by UCO agents.
A few days after that meeting, the 'Majic' set sail with a declared destination of Brazil, verifying from the Maritime Coordination and Surveillance Center (CECORVIMAR) of the Civil Guard that, after leaving the Canary Islands, the vessel was not following a course in accordance with its declared destination.
The latter activated the rapid and urgent intervention of the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard through its oceanic vessel Río Segura, with members on board of the Special Intervention Unit (UEI) in the event of a possible boarding on the high seas, all in anticipation of the possible narcotic substance being unloaded at some point on the coast of the Canary Islands.
