Officials from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency on board the patrol boat 'Sacre', with the support of the special operations vessel 'Petrel I' of the SVA, in a joint investigation with the Civil Guard and the National Police, have intercepted a sailboat loaded with cocaine about 50 miles from the Canary Islands.
When detected, the crew of the sailboat caused a fire on their boat, causing serious injuries to one of them, who had to be evacuated by Maritime Rescue. Despite the sinking of the sailboat and the destruction of a good part of the drug by the fire, the crew of the patrol boat 'Sacre' managed to recover 25 kilos of cocaine.
The operational deployment is part of the current plan to intensify the investigation, surveillance and control of maritime spaces in waters near the Canary Islands, which includes the participation of the patrol boats 'Petrel I' and 'Sacre' of the Tax Agency. Thus, in the course of a surveillance operation aimed at intensifying the location of targets susceptible to anomalous behavior in the area, information was received about a vessel that would be near the island of Tenerife and that would be transporting a significant amount of narcotic substance. Presumably, it would carry out a transfer to another vessel, semi-rigid type, which would be responsible for introducing the drug into the Spanish coasts.
International cooperation allowed obtaining intelligence information from the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States, channeled through the Maritime Anti-Narcotics Center in the Atlantic (MAOC) and coordinated nationally by the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO, between the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, National Police and Civil Guard.
Sailboat fire
The maritime action was very risky for the officials of the Customs patrol boats, due to the bad state of the sea and the fire intentionally caused by the crew of the vessel in order to destroy the cocaine and the sailboat.
The rapid action of the agents of the Customs Surveillance Service allowed to initially extinguish the fire and complete the boarding of the vessel, as well as recover part of the merchandise before the fire was reactivated, which finally ended up destroying most of the cocaine cargo and the vessel that transported it, a 'sloop' named 'Lona'.
The two crew members of the sailboat, of French and Dutch nationality, have been arrested. One of them was seriously injured in the fire and has been transferred by helicopter by Maritime Rescue.
The two vessels of the Customs Surveillance Service, together with the detainees and the drug that has been recovered, arrived on Friday in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
