The Government approves the declaration of emergency in the contracting of the refloating of the 'narcoship' Nehir

Llop assures that "refloating and securing the boat is a pioneering and large-scale operation"

MADRID, 14 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday an agreement by which the emergency declaration of the contracting of the refloating service of the 'narcoship' Nehir, currently sunk in the Gijón port of El Musel, is taken to proceed with its subsequent destruction for an amount of 776,069.80 euros.

As reported by the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, "refloating and securing the boat is a pioneering and large-scale operation." The Nehir was intervened in February 2021 by the National Court as a total of 92 packages containing 1,831 packages of cocaine weighing approximately one kilo each were found inside.

After its capture on the high seas and given the risk of sinking, intentionally caused by its own crew, and the danger to navigation in the area by remaining partially afloat, it was transferred to the port of Gijón, where it has been sunk since 2021.

It was in December of last year when the judge in charge of the Central Court of Instruction Number 1, Alejandro Abascal, entrusted the ORGA with the destruction and treatment as residue of the 'narcoship'.

Llop, who has valued the work of the Asset Recovery and Management Office (ORGA), has maintained that the organization is "a benchmark at a European level that manages to get money from drug trafficking or money laundering crimes capital reverts to society in projects to help victims and fight organized crime".

The Ministry has recalled that the Gijón Port Authority has warned in a report that the situation of the Nehir entails a very high environmental risk, due to a possible uncontrolled spill of fuel, when the ship was found half-sunken on a dock in the port of Gijón.

This risk was increased by the arrival of winter and the greater frequency of storms, which could cause larger spills. "For this reason, among the objectives of this operation are avoiding possible environmental damage and facilitating the normal operation of the port as quickly as possible," Justicia explained.

For these reasons, companies in the sector were urgently requested to submit an offer for the refloating of the Nehir, with the extraction of the hydrocarbon and contaminating residues, as well as the transfer for its subsequent destruction and scrapping, before ensuring the stabilization of the ship. that allows the authorities to undertake the pertinent investigations.

"Taking into account the circumstances, which required immediate action due to the aforementioned situation of serious environmental danger and in order to facilitate the normal operation of the port, the Contracting Board of the Ministry of Justice awarded the contract through the urgent procedure" , has added the department led by Llop.

At present, they have pointed out, these works are being carried out, which began on January 10 and will continue until the vessel is fully insured and stabilized.