Spain seizes two tonnes of cocaine from yacht linked to Balkans

The interception of a sailing boat carrying more than two tonnes of cocaine in the Atlantic has led to the dismantling of a logistics network for drug trafficking. The joint military and customs operation off the Galician coast ended with the arrest of the crew on the high seas and of the network’s leader in Girona, marking one of the biggest seizures from the drug cartels’ maritime routes.

Operation Doncella, conducted by Spain’s Customs Surveillance Service together with the French customs authorities, resulted in five arrests and the seizure of more than 2,000 kilos of cocaine some 400 miles off Galicia.

The investigation was launched in February in Girona to look into a suspicious yacht.

Boats for Eastern European and Balkan mafias

It focused on a 14-metre yacht flying the Polish flag but some of the paperwork raised questions and it emerged that its owner had been convicted of theft.

The evidence confirmed that the network was supplying foreign-flagged leisure boats to organised crime groups from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. A

fter gathering information in Poland via the Intelligence Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime, officers located the yacht in Roses, Girona and kept it under surveillance until 11 July, when it put to sea with its tracking system switched off in order to avoid being monitored.

Five suspects arrested

With help from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the UK’s National Crime Agency and Portugal’s Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre for Narcotics, a Spanish patrol vessel tracked and located the smugglers 400 miles off Galicia.

After the boarding operation in the early hours of 14 September, officers found 70 bales containing 2,100 kilos of cocaine stowed across the deck. The operation led to the arrest of four crew members — of Argentinian, Uruguayan, Colombian and Albanian nationality — with the Albanian suspect allegedly responsible for overseeing delivery to buyers in the Balkans.

While the Petrel I was towing the yacht to Vigo, police in Girona arrested the ringleader of the network, a Chilean national in charge of sourcing the vessels. The investigation remains open as officers seek to arrest a man in Barcelona believed to be responsible for the group’s surveillance and logistics.

Those charged will appear before the National Court on counts of belonging to an organised criminal group, smuggling and drug trafficking as authorities look to crack dwon on the Atlantic cocaine route.