They intercept a fishing boat with 3,300 kilos of cocaine on the African route bound for the coast of Galicia

They arrest 16 people directly related to a major criminal organization based in the region

MADRID, 21 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Civil Guard has intercepted a fishing boat with 3,300 kilograms of cocaine inside in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, bound for an undetermined point on the coast of Galicia, in an operation that has resulted in the arrest of 16 people.

Those responsible for this important consignment of cocaine belong to a criminal organization based in Galicia specialized in introducing large amounts of drugs into national territory, using boats that simulated fishing campaigns in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, close to the African coast.

Some members of the organization personally traveled to Senegal with the aim of personally organizing and coordinating this shipment of cocaine, taking charge of both the freight of the ship and the hiring of the crew, planning in the same way, which vessels would go out to meet of this ship as it neared its destination.

Once the roles of the different identified actors were established in this way, it was observed how they intensified different activities, all of them aimed at the introduction of a significant consignment of cocaine on or near the Galician coasts.

In addition, the agents were also able to find out how the investigated group had "sophisticated" means for transporting the drug through different Spanish provinces, which allowed them to even do without other shuttle vehicles that would warn of possible police controls, by having sophisticated methods of concealment in hydraulic false bottoms in the vehicles they used, to which was added the use of encrypted messaging between the communications of its members.

The investigation began at the beginning of 2022, after the agents detected a special activity of certain police objectives, with the scope of fishing carried out by Galician fleets in African waters.

On December 18, agents of the Special Intervention Unit (UEI) and the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard, boarded the ship chartered by the Galician organization to the north of the Canary Islands, after having been discreetly monitored by a Civil Guard Air Service plane for several hours once located.

In this approach, the three crew members of the investigated ship were arrested, as well as the aforementioned 3,300 kilograms of cocaine seized, which could be accounted for once unloaded in the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the place where the ship was taken after the collision.

After these events, the operation on the ground quickly precipitated, carrying out a total of thirteen arrests yesterday in the provinces of Pontevedra, Ourense and A Coruña in the fourteen searches carried out, which allowed the intervention of one kilogram of heroin. , 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, 20,000 euros, high-end vehicles, encrypted electronic devices, sophisticated detection devices of technical means, as well as abundant documentation and effects of great interest to the operation.

The operation, called 'Sugar Brown', has been directed by the Investigating Court No. 1 of Vigo and by the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of Pontevedra, and carried out by the Organized Crime Team based in Galicia (ECO Galicia) of UCO together with the Organized Crime and Anti-drug Team of the UOPJ of Pontevedra, with the participation of different Units from the same Command.

Thus, this international drug trafficking route is consolidated as one of the itineraries most used by large drug trafficking organizations, who consider it one of the most "safe" and with the greatest guarantee of success for their interests.

And it is that, the Civil Guard has been detecting for some time that certain Galician organizations have gradually increased their infrastructures to introduce narcotics through this itinerary.