Spanish police located 100 bales of cocaine, weighing around 40 kilos each, on a Panamanian-flagged fishing vessel.
Last Tuesday, the Spanish National Police seized more than four thousand kilos of cocaine on a Panama-flagged fishing vessel off the west coast of the Canary Islands, and detained the 15 crew members.
In a statement released this Friday, the Spanish authority said that, after boarding the vessel, it located one hundred bales of cocaine weighing around 40 kilos each.
The investigation began at the beginning of the month, when the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration, the North American drug enforcement agency) warned of the possibility that a criminal organization "was transferring a large quantity of cocaine between two ships on the high seas".
"The suspect vessel, flying the Panamanian flag, had previously been sanctioned by the Panamanian authorities for having committed serious infractions and had its fishing license revoked", indicated the National Police, adding that the same vessel had also been monitored in the port of Vigo " because it was suspected that his activities were linked to drug trafficking".
An operation was then launched, with the support of the Spanish Navy, to try to locate the vessel, which was in Atlantic waters, around 500 miles west of the Canary Islands.
On Tuesday, it was possible to board the vessel and carry out searches, which culminated in the arrest of 15 crew members and the seizure of 100 bales of cocaine weighing approximately 4 thousand kilos.
