Operation of the Tax Agency, National Police and Civil Guard

• At the time of boarding by the Customs Surveillance vessel 'Fulmar' it was observed that the cargo ship was carrying 200 tons of coffee as declared merchandise, well below the actual capacity of the ship.

• The conditions of the naval operation have been very complicated due to the sea conditions and the large size of the vessel, with 100 meters in length.

January 20, 2023 .- The Tax Agency, in collaboration with the National Police and Civil Guard, has intercepted 80 miles east of the Canary Islands a cargo ship named 'Blume' and flying the flag of Togo with more than 4,500 kilos of cocaine. The 15 crew members of the vessel were arrested in the operation. The boarding of the ship, carried out by the Special Operations Vessel 'Fulmar' of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, was highly complex, given the state of the sea and the large size of the cargo ship.

The operation was launched as a result of international collaboration in which investigators from the Customs Surveillance Service, the National Police and the Civil Guard, based on the exchange of information between the Atlantic Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC-N) and the Intelligence Centre Against Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO), determined the possible involvement of a vessel suspected of illicit drug trafficking from South America.

As a result, the Tax Agency's Deputy Directorate of Customs Surveillance established an air-naval operation and sent its ship 'Fulmar' to locate and, finally, board the cargo ship in the early hours of the 18th.

At the time of boarding, it was observed that the cargo ship was carrying about 200 tons of coffee as declared merchandise, well below the actual cargo capacity of the ship, which caught the attention of the officials in charge of the operation.

Subsequently, during an inspection of the common areas of the cargo ship, the presence of an undetermined number of bales of the type normally used for cocaine trafficking was detected, which is why the 15 crew members of the vessel were arrested at that time, two Albanian citizens and 13 Pakistani citizens, as well as the intervention of the ship, which together with the detainees has been transferred to the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Difficulty of approach

The boarding conditions were very complicated due to the sea conditions and the large size of the ship. Despite this, the swift action of the Fulmar and its crew prevented any possible transfer of the drugs to other vessels, which would have compromised the detection of the shipment.

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.

This operation, directed and coordinated by the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National Court, is added to those carried out to date on the so-called 'Atlantic Route' of cocaine, known for being used by fishing vessels, merchant ships and cargo ships that, coming from South America, transfer narcotic substances in the middle of the Atlantic for their subsequent introduction into the European continent.