Watch: 3 Tons Of Cocaine Busted From Cargo Vessel Off The Canary Islands

Relevant Spanish authorities have discovered three tons of cocaine off the Canary Islands on a cargo vessel.

The 4,300-dwt ship, constructed in 2005, was reportedly intercepted on Tuesday, 193 nm from the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, per the official website of Eldia es Tenerife.

The Togo-flagged vessel had its AIS off. The last update received was on 17 January. It had reportedly departed from the port of Santos on 20 December. Its destination was recorded to be Latvia’s Riga.

Agents associated with the Spanish customs vessel seized it and brought it into Tenerife on Thursday.

Source: Inforportos/YouTube

An extensive security mission led by civil and military authorities, including experienced police divers, took over five hours at the Los Llanos dock. 

Bags loaded with cocaine were unloaded with a crane during the evening. The drugs had an estimated value of €180m.

The report didn’t specify what happened to the crew members; however, it has been reported that all of them have been arrested.

‘Traffickers’ terror’

In Spain, the 61-meter special operations vessel is referred to as the terror of drug traffickers.

It has two fast boats on either side of the hull, with one of these boasting a speed of 50 knots. The vessel had faced detention twice after stringent port state control checks last year. The first time happened in Turkey when 45 deficiencies were noticed.

Grounds for detaining included missing an oil record book and a flag-state endorsement certificate, faults with oil filtering equipment, and expired firefighting equipment.

References: Greek Reporter, Tradewind News