SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Tax Agency, within the framework of a joint operation with the Civil Guard and the National Police, has intercepted two sailboats loaded with more than 1,100 kilos of cocaine in waters west of the Canary Islands, while the arrest of their crew members, as reported by the Benemérita.
The two vessels were boarded by the Special Operations Ship ‘Fulmar’ of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency. One of the sailboats, named ‘My Love’, and its crew have been transferred to the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to be brought before the courts. As part of another investigation, a second sailboat was boarded, also with drugs.
Within the framework of the surveillance and prevention actions that are usually carried out and through the international communication system between the MAOC-N and the CITCO, information was received from the DEA of the United States, with the collaboration of the British NCA, which would indicate that a sailboat called ‘My Love’ could be near the position of the ship ‘Fulmar’.
As a consequence of the foregoing, the Customs Surveillance Service patrolman received instructions to head towards that vessel, which was located and boarded on the afternoon of March 3, some 350 miles from Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
In the boat ‘My Love’, with the Belgian flag, it could be seen with the naked eye that it was transporting an indeterminate number of bales of those usually used for the transport of cocaine. After having the authorization of the Belgian authorities, they proceeded to board the sailboat, to seize the cocaine that the boat was carrying and to arrest the two crew members of it, of Spanish nationality.
This operation has been directed and coordinated by the Anti-drug Prosecutor of the National Court and the Central Court of Instruction number 5 of the National Court.
The circumstance arises that the ship ‘Fulmar’ was immersed in another operation as a result of which a first sailboat that also carried cocaine had been previously intervened and that it was being towed to the Canary Islands in the framework of a joint investigation of the three police forces, action that continues open. Both the detainees and the boats, drugs and police proceedings will go to court.
As reported by the Civil Guard, the conditions of both assaults have been very complicated due, in the first case, to the sea situation, and in the second, to the handicap of towing the first intervened sailboat, which meant that maneuvers will be much more difficult. Despite this, the rapid action and experience of the acting SVA agents prevented incidents from occurring and allowed the operation to be successful on one of the few occasions in which a double intervention is carried out in the same naval operation.
These operations are two more of those carried out by the troops dedicated to the repression of drug trafficking against drug trafficking in the so-called ‘Atlantic Route’ of cocaine, known for being used by fishing boats, merchants and, as in this case, sailboats from from South America who intend to introduce the drug into the European continent.
