Joint operation by the Tax Agency and the National Police

• The 'Orion V', with the flag of Togo and a transport of livestock bound for the Middle East, has been intercepted 62 miles southwest of the archipelago by the Customs Surveillance vessel 'Fulmar'

• The 28 crew members of the cargo ship, of nine different nationalities, were arrested

• International organizations are reinventing themselves when it comes to transporting drugs from Latin America to Europe, using live cattle to make their control and location difficult.

January 28, 2023 .- The Tax Agency, within the framework of a joint operation with the National Police, has intervened 62 miles southwest of the Canary Islands the cargo ship 'Orion V' when it was carrying 4,500 kilos of cocaine. Following the interception of the ship by the Special Operations Vessel 'Fulmar' of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, its 28 crew members, of nine different nationalities, have been arrested. The cargo ship, flying the same Togolese flag and similar in size to the 'Blume' that was boarded in the middle of this month also in waters near the Canary Islands, was transporting cattle from Colombia to the Middle East.

The operation involved the American DEA, the Atlantic Analysis and Operations Center (MAOC-N) and the Intelligence Center Against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), as well as the Togolese authorities.

The operation was launched as a result of investigations carried out jointly by the National Police and the Customs Surveillance Service, which determined the possible involvement of a vessel suspected of illicit drug trafficking from South America.

Since 2020, the National Police and the Customs Surveillance Service have been monitoring the vessel 'Orion V' (formerly 'Spiridon'), suspected of being used to transport significant quantities of drugs. The narcotic was loaded at port or transferred to the ports on the high seas.

This vessel has already been analysed as part of an investigation carried out by the Central Narcotics Brigade and the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, in which the 'Santorum' brothers, who were in charge of receiving and introducing significant quantities of cocaine, were arrested, among others. Despite having been subjected to control and registration on that occasion, no drugs could be found inside, although there was sufficient evidence confirming that it was a vessel transporting narcotics under the pretext of transporting livestock – to countries such as Libya, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Curaçao, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Macao, Kuwait and Qatar – offering livestock products treated and handled in conditions suitable for international trade.

Finally, the Deputy Directorate of Customs Surveillance established an air-naval device that allowed the ship 'Fulmar' to locate and board the freighter on the afternoon of January 24.

After inspecting the common areas of the merchant ship, an undetermined number of bales of the type normally used for cocaine trafficking were detected in a feed silo. For this reason, the 28 crew members of the vessel were arrested: ten Tanzanian citizens, five Syrians, four Kenyans, two Ecuadorians, two Panamanians, two Colombians, one Dominican, one Nepalese and one Nicaraguan, as well as the seizure of the vessel for its transfer to the port of Las Palmas. The operation was directed and coordinated by the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National Court.

The detainees, the boat, the drugs and the police investigation will be placed at the disposal of the Central Court of Instruction acting as the National Court's Guard.

Nine tons of cocaine in the space of a week

This operation is one of many carried out in the fight against drug trafficking on the so-called 'Atlantic Route' of cocaine, which is used by merchant and fishing vessels from South America to transport narcotic substances in the middle of the Atlantic for their subsequent introduction into the European continent.

In this case, the interception of the 'Orion V' took place just six days after the one carried out on January 18, when the cargo ship 'Blume' was seized, with very similar characteristics - both with around 100 meters in length - and 4,500 kilos of cocaine on board, so that together they add up to nine tons of drugs seized in this short period of time.