Operation of the Tax Agency, Civil Guard and National Police

• The four crew members of the Mongolian-flagged vessel 'Odyssey 227' were arrested and the drugs found in the vessel's hold were seized
• The boarding was carried out by the 'Sacre' patrol boat of Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, within the framework of a joint operation of the three bodies

June 1, 2021 .- The Tax Agency, in collaboration with the Civil Guard and the National Police, intervened early today, within the framework of operation 'Wet Water', a Mongolian-flagged fishing boat carrying nearly 15 tons of hashish. The boarding of the ship, named 'Odyssey 227', was carried out by the patrol boat 'Sacre' of Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, about 30 miles east of Fuerteventura, in international waters.

The fishing vessel was the subject of an investigation carried out by the Maritime Investigation Office of Customs Surveillance in Galicia, the National Police and the Civil Guard.

The boarding, carried out following a request to the Mongolian consular authorities in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Vienna Convention against illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, was carried out without encountering any resistance from the fishing boat's crew.

However, the rough sea conditions and the very nature of the operation created an extremely difficult situation when, during the assault, the Chief of the Crew of the patrol boat 'Sacre' fell into the water, but was immediately rescued by his companions, continuing with the mission.

The four crew members on board the fishing boat have been arrested; the captain, of Italian nationality, and the chief engineer and sailors of Senegalese nationality.

The fishing boat, along with the seized drugs and the four crew members, was escorted to the port of Las Palmas, where it arrived at around five in the afternoon, local time.

Previous research

The investigation, coordinated by CITCO (Centre for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organised Crime), led to the exploitation phase, when the Maritime Intelligence Office of Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency in the Canary Islands corroborated the initial hypothesis of the VA office in Galicia in relation to suspicious navigation of the ship 'Odyssey' in waters near the Canary Islands.

Finally, the decision was made to allow the patrol boat 'Sacre' to go out to sea, due to strong indications that the fishing boat was loaded with narcotic substances.

The Maritime Investigation Offices, created by the Tax Agency in all the Special Delegations with coastline, are developing new investigative tools to counteract the increase in maritime drug trafficking, both of hashish and cocaine, that has been detected in recent years.  These offices analyse the traffic and routes of fishing and merchant vessels in risk zones to detect possible illegal operations.

Modifying hash routes

In recent times, there has been a significant change in the trafficking routes for hashish from Morocco. The traditional 'Eastern Mediterranean' route, with loads off the Moroccan Mediterranean coast and the drug presumably being transported to Libya, has been significantly reduced and replaced by a new route, the so-called 'Atlantic hashish route', which is characterised by loads of the drug off the Moroccan Atlantic coast and its transport by boat, presumably to Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Senegal, etc., where it would be unloaded for subsequent transport by land, crossing the African continent via the Sahel route, presumably to Libya and then entering the European continent.

Intelligence indicates that this new 'Atlantic hashish route' has emerged because organisations consider it a safer route than the old 'Eastern Mediterranean' route - where Italian, French and Spanish authorities have carried out multiple seizures.