Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• The boat headed towards the western coast of Morocco to load the drugs, then returned to Spanish waters due to bad weather.
• The two crew members of the British-born sailboat, which was boarded after being rescued during a storm, have been arrested

December 27, 2022.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, in collaboration with the National Police and with the participation of the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, has seized 4.4 tons of hashish inside a British sailboat in the Bay of Cádiz. The vessel set off for the western coast of Morocco to load the drugs, but had to return to Spanish waters due to weather conditions.

The operation was carried out within the framework of international cooperation against drug trafficking, through the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre for Drug Trafficking (MAOC-N), the European body responsible for monitoring suspicious vessels in the Atlantic. In this regard, British authorities have warned of the presence of a suspicious sailboat that could be found off the Spanish coast. Investigations revealed that the vessel was to be used to load a large quantity of hashish in Morocco for subsequent transport to South America.

At that time, investigations began to detect the presence of the vessel on the Andalusian coast, and it was finally located by officials of the Cadiz Customs Surveillance Unit in Puerto América, one of the marinas in this town.

Once the sailboat, named 'IVY ROSA', was located, surveillance and control of the possible movements of the ship was initiated. It left Cadiz for the western coast of Morocco to load the drugs, then returned to Spanish waters due to bad weather in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Distress call and boarding

When the vessel approached the Bay of Cadiz to try to take shelter from the storm, in the early hours of last Saturday, and taking advantage of the call made by its crew to Maritime Rescue for help, the Customs Surveillance patrol boat 'Milano II' used the element of surprise to approach and board the suspicious target, observing inside numerous bundles of burlap and raffia of the type commonly used to transport this kind of narcotics.

Once the boat had been rescued and taken to the port of Cadiz, its two crew members were arrested and the corresponding search was carried out, locating 130 packages containing some 4,400 kilos of hashish resin.

The detainees, the boat seized and the drugs seized have been placed at the disposal of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Cadiz.

The investigation is still ongoing, so further arrests cannot be ruled out.