Agents of the National Police, in a joint operation with Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, have intercepted a narco-sailboat that was hiding cocaine in double bottoms that are difficult to access.
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The boat, which was located in international waters of the Atlantic about 500 miles from the Azores, was manned by two people who have been arrested. Once in the port of Cádiz, the net weight of the substance amounted to 400 kilos of cocaine.
The investigation began at the beginning of this year after receiving information about people of Bulgarian origin who, presumably, would use Spain as a logistics point to carry out a large cocaine operation.
From that moment, the necessary actions were carried out to identify its members as well as the means they would use to carry it out, in this case a sailboat located in the Caribbean.
The boat - sloop type and name FREA with a Polish flag and 15.85 meters in length - would have begun its criminal activity once it was perfectly conditioned and with all the guarantees to be able to make the crossing, which is why, in the month of July, it arranged his departure with two crew members on board.
After analyzing all the information, the National Police and the Customs Surveillance Service established a joint maritime operation in order to attack the sailboat "FREA", located some 500 nautical miles from the Azores.
Finally, on day five the sailboat was approached and it was found that it was carrying a significant amount of narcotic substance, specifically cocaine, part of it hidden in the cabins of the boat itself. At that time the two crew members were arrested.
Last Tuesday, and once in the port of Cádiz, a total of 400 net kilograms of cocaine were discovered inside the sailboat. Most of the drug was hidden in a false bottom in the stern of the sailboat, so its discovery was very laborious.
The investigation, directed and coordinated by the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National High Court, has had the collaboration of the authorities of the United Kingdom and France and the participation of CITCO and the MAOC-N.
Both the detainees, as well as the boat, the drug and the police proceedings have been handed over to the Central Investigating Court number 5.
This operation is one more of those carried out in the fight against drug trafficking in the so-called Atlantic Cocaine Route, known for being used by sailboats that from South America transship narcotic substances in the middle of the Atlantic for their subsequent introduction in the continent. European. ■