Joint operation of the Tax Agency, Civil Guard and National Police

• The patrol vessel 'Alcaraván I' of the Customs Surveillance Service, based in Santander, carried out the boarding within the framework of an international operation coordinated by MAOC-N and CITCO
• The operation ended with the arrest of the four crew members, of different nationalities
• A capture of this nature is totally exceptional in the Cantabrian coast area.

August 2, 2023.- The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the Civil Guard and the National Police, has intercepted a type sailboat 30 nautical miles from Santander 'sloop' of 13 meters in length, named 'Night Falls', flying the flag of the United Kingdom, when it was transporting approximately 2,000 kilos of cocaine valued at around 70 million euros.

The operation began, as a consequence of international collaboration, through the exchange of information between the MAOC-N (Atlantic Analysis and Operations Center), the CITCO (Intelligence Center Against Terrorism and Organized Crime), which has been the subject of investigation by the three police forces (Customs Surveillance Service, National Police and Civil Guard). The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) collaborated in the operation.

As a result of this exchange of information, the possible involvement of a vessel suspected of illicit drug trafficking from South America and which had just crossed the Atlantic to arrive on Spanish coasts was determined.

As a consequence, the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency established the appropriate aeronaval device in order to locate this objective that involved different resources from Galicia, Cantabria and the Basque Country. The search for the vessel lasted more than 48 hours and, finally, as a result of the search, the patrol boat 'Alcaraván I', based in Santander, located and boarded the sailboat at midnight from the 1st to the 2nd. of August.

Sailboat pending possible transshipment

The boat was not sailing on a specific course, but was stopped at a point 30 miles north of the coast. This fact was very striking, not only because of the weather conditions in the area, but because it coincides with the usual practice in this type of operations, in which vessels transporting cocaine from South America or the Caribbean transfer to another vessel with the end of its arrival at the end-use to make its detection by the authorities more difficult. Therefore, it is presumed that the 'Night Falls' sailboat would be in those coordinates waiting to transship the drugs.

From the first moment of boarding, it was observed that on board this vessel there was a significant amount of bales usually used for cocaine trafficking, distributed throughout practically the entire vessel.

At that moment, the four crew members were arrested, one of them of Spanish nationality, another of Colombian nationality and two more of Venezuelan nationality. The ship was also seized and transferred to the port of Santander to carry out the appropriate procedures.

The operation has been directed and coordinated by the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National Court. Both the detainees, the boat and the narcotic substance will be placed at the disposal of the corresponding Central Investigative Court.

This operation, totally exceptional in the area of the Cantabrian coast, is one of those carried out in the fight against drug trafficking on the so-called 'Atlantic Cocaine Route', known for being used by sailboats that tranship from South America. narcotic substances in the middle of the Atlantic for their subsequent introduction to the European continent.