The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the Guardia Civil and the National Police, has intercepted a 13 metre sloop sailing boat named 'Night Falls', flying the UK flag, 30 nautical miles from Santander, when it was transporting approximately 2,000 kilos of cocaine valued at around 70 million euros.
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The operation was initiated as a result of international collaboration through the exchange of information between MAOC-N (Atlantic Analysis and Operations Centre), CITCO (Centre for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organised Crime), which has been investigated by the three police forces (Customs Surveillance Service, National Police and Civil Guard).The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) was involved in the operation.
As a result of this exchange of information, the possible involvement of a vessel suspected of illicit drug trafficking from South America, which had just crossed the Atlantic to reach the Spanish coast, was identified.
As a result, the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance Service set up the appropriate air and naval operation in order to locate this target, which involved different resources from Galicia, Cantabria and the Basque Country.
The search for the vessel lasted more than 48 hours and, finally, as a result of the search, the patrol boat 'Alcaraván I', based in Santander, located and boarded the vessel at midnight on 1 to 2 August.
Sailing vessel pending possible transhipment
The vessel was not on a specific course, but was stationary at a point 30 miles north of the coast.
This was very striking, not only because of the weather conditions in the area, but also because it coincides with the usual practice in this type of operation, in which vessels transporting cocaine from South America or the Caribbean transfer to another vessel in order to reach their final destination and make it more difficult for the authorities to detect them.
Therefore, it is presumed that the sailing vessel 'Night Falls' would be at these coordinates waiting to tranship the drugs.
From the first moment of the boarding, it could be observed that on board this vessel there was a significant quantity of bales of the type normally used for cocaine trafficking, distributed throughout almost the entire vessel.
At that moment, the four crew members were arrested, one of them a Spanish national, another a Colombian national and two more of Venezuelan nationality. The vessel was also seized and transferred to the port of Santander for the appropriate proceedings.
The operation has been directed and coordinated by the Anti-Drugs Prosecutor's Office of the Audiencia Nacional.The detainees, the boat and the narcotic substance will be handed over to the corresponding Central Court of Instruction.
This operation, totally exceptional in the area of the Cantabrian coast, is one of the operations carried out in the fight against drug trafficking on the so-called 'Atlantic cocaine route', known to be used by sailing ships from South America to tranship narcotic substances in the middle of the Atlantic for their subsequent introduction into Europe. ■