Spain intercepts 30 tons of cocaine
Spanish police seized a record 30 tons of cocaine from a cargo ship off the coast of Africa, judicial authorities said Thursday, in what they described as the largest drug shipment ever intercepted.
The seizure was carried out in cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Dutch police.
The drugs were grouped into 1,279 packages and had a street value of more than 812 million euros ($953 million), Canary Islands justice added. If sold on the street, the quantity of cocaine found last Friday could bring in up to 1.5 billion euros, according to the press release.
A judge in the Canary Islands ordered the provisional detention of the 23 crew members of the ship, the Arconian, added a judicial spokesperson.
According to ship tracking services, the 300-foot-long Comoros-flagged vessel was en route from Sierra Leone, West Africa, to Libya when it was intercepted off the coast of Western Sahara.
Authorities believe the drugs, which most likely came from South America, were to be transferred by sea to smaller speedboats, which would then transport the cocaine to Europe.
