Spanish police have made their largest-ever cocaine seizure on the high seas, intercepting a Europe-bound general cargo ship with almost 10 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a shipment of salt.
Officers from the Special Operations Group (GEO) boarded the merchant vessel last week on the Atlantic Ocean en route from Brazil to Europe and located 9,994 kilograms of cocaine concealed in a shipment of salt, police said on Monday.
During the operation, 13 people were arrested and the drugs, distributed in 294 bundles, were seized, along with a firearm.
The vessel, which ended up running out of fuel, had to be towed to the Canary Islands, police said.
The operation, nicknamed Marea Blanca, was carried out in collaboration with Brazilian federal police, the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the UK’s National Crime Agency, alongside French and Portuguese authorities.
The police statement said: “Thanks to this joint effort, Policía Nacional officers recovered 9,994kg of cocaine packed into 294 bundles that had been hidden among the tonnes of salt the ship was transporting, as well as a firearm.”
The previous record for the largest amount of cocaine seized by the force at sea was the 7.500 kilos recovered from a ship in 1999.
