Spanish Police Bust Harbor Supply Boat for Picking Up Smuggled Cocaine

Spanish authorities have arrested three people who are suspected of retrieving cocaine from the sea chest of a merchant ship off the coast of Las Palmas. It is the latest in a long string of drug busts in and around the Canary Islands, a region often used as a transfer point for the South America to Europe cocaine supply chain.

Spain's Guardia Civil suspected that a commercial harbor supply boat - routinely used to transfer stores to vessels at anchor off Las Palmas - might be involved in illicit activities. During an inspection, officers uncovered a large suitcase with multiple packets of cocaine in it. This discovery prompted a more thorough search of the vessel, and the officers turned up a cache of diving equipment in the hold - the kind of gear that one would need for accessing a ship's hull for smuggling purposes. All three crewmembers from the supply boat were arrested.

After finding the gear, a special unit of the Guardia Civil deployed to inspect the anchored merchant vessel where the crew of the supply boat allegedly retrieved the cocaine. A dive team found another black wrapped package of cocaine bricks in the vessel's sea chest.

In total, the amount of the drug bust came to 72 kilos, worth more than $2.5 million on the European market. The detainees and the haul of cocaine were handed off to a criminal court in Las Palmas for prosecution.

Just last month, a series of raids across the Canary Islands netted the capture of four tonnes of cocaine, $114,000 in cash and 48 suspects. Spanish police allege that the smuggling network used a fleet of 11 speedboats to pick up cocaine from other vessels at sea, then deliver it to the Canary Islands. The group allegedly used a sophisticated comms system, included encryption, coded language and satellite terminals.