Spanish authorities break up drug ring using speedboats from Atlantic offshore bases

Spanish police have broken up a vast cocaine trafficking operation that used speed boats to bring the drug onshore from floating bases in the Atlantic, seizing 10 tonnes of the drug and arresting 105 suspects.

Police said on Monday that a year-long investigation in co-operation with law enforcement in countries including Cape Verde, Colombia, France, Portugal and the US showed the group brought an estimated 57 tonnes of cocaine to Europe in the period.

Speed boats, operating at night from rivers in southern Spain, the northwestern Galicia region and the Canary Islands, as well as from Portugal and Morocco, navigated far into the Atlantic to offload drugs from transport and storage ships.