A joint operation by the Tax Agency and the Guardia Civil

• He intended to extract 13 kilos of cocaine that was hidden inside a container

• The drug would be valued at 468,000 euros

July 15, 2022.- The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency in Las Palmas, in a joint operation with agents from the Tax and Border Section of the port of La Luz, has arrested to a stevedore in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for trying to extract 13 kilos of cocaine that were hidden in a container in the port.

The operation began after carrying out an exhaustive risk analysis in recent months on the merchandise transported by ships from Latin America and that are destined for the port of La Luz, whether in transit or definitive. After this analysis, several containers stowed on a ship from Brazil were selected to carry out control and monitoring on them.

During this monitoring and control process, on June 30, a stevedore, who was working at that time, was surprised manipulating the ventilation compartments of a refrigerated container in one of the port's container terminals. This fact aroused the suspicions of the investigators, who proceeded to arrest the stevedore after verifying that a total of twelve rectangular packages containing cocaine were hidden inside one of the container's ventilation compartments.

This intervention has dealt a new blow to international organized crime that uses this type of " modus operandi " preventing the substance from being introduced into the illicit market.

The cocaine, valued at around 468,000 euros, along with the detainee, the indications and the evidence collected, were delivered to the Judicial Authority acting as the Guard of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, who decreed preventive detention for the alleged perpetrator of the events.