Spanish Police Seize Record 30 Tons of Hashish in Atlantic Drug Bust

More than 30 tons of hashish, this is the harvest of the Spanish police, following this operation carried out on four sailboats intercepted in the Atlantic from September 24 to 28. The operation led to the arrest of nine people "of Bulgarian and Russian origin," the police said in a statement, adding that this is the largest seizure at sea ever carried out in the country, considered one of the main entry points for drugs into Europe, with a strong presence of criminal networks from Eastern European countries.

Among the four sailboats, two high-end ones were intercepted off the island of Fuerteventura, in the Spanish Canary Islands, southwest of Morocco. The third, near the Strait of Gibraltar and the last, off the Mauritanian coast south of Morocco.

These narco-sailboats are considered by investigators as "the largest criminal organization dedicated to hashish trafficking by sea." Its senior officials are of Bulgarian origin.

In mid-September, nearly a ton of cocaine, destined for the European market and estimated to be worth more than 40 million euros, was seized on a sailboat flying the Croatian flag off the Canary Islands. The authorities are also talking about a new African drug route.

So far this year, nearly 35 tons and six sailboats, worth a total of more than 5 million euros, belonging to this organization, have already fallen into the hands of the Spanish police. The authorities in the country have benefited from the collaboration of their British, Dutch, Greek, Italian and Europol counterparts.