The Civil Guard, the National Police and the Tax Agency have apprehended 1,200 kilograms of cocaine from South America on a sailboat when sailing about 600 miles west of the Canary Islands and have arrested the two crew members, a Spanish and a
Italian who did not oppose resistance.
This has been reported by the three bodies in a joint statement in which they add that the interception occurred on September 20 in international waters when the crew of prey of the customs surveillance patrolman of the Tax Agency ‘Petrel I’, based on
Vigo, approached the sailboat, named ‘Memo’.
Within it found the cargo of cocaine from South America, with alleged destination to the Iberian Peninsula, and they stopped their two crew members.
The circumstance is given that the sailboat sailed without known pavilion of any state.
After consulting alleged nationalities of the boat with authorities of the United Kingdom and Germany, who could not confirm the pavilion of it, she considers himself vessel without nationality.
Finally, the sailboat, along with the apprehendid drug and the two trend crew, has been transferred to the port of Las Palmas while research remains open for the identification of the recipient criminal group of the narcotic substance and is being directed by the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office
and by the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 2 of the National Hearing.
The approach operation has been developed within the framework of international police cooperation between customs surveillance of the Tax Agency, National Police and Civil Guard, in collaboration with British NCA, all under the coordination carried out by the Intelligence Center against the
Terrorism and organized crime (CITCO) and Maoc-N (analysis center and maritime operations on drug trafficking).
Likewise, thanks to this international cooperation it was possible to locate the boat, which initially was unknown and was proceeded to interception.