Joint operation of the Tax Agency and National Police

• In a sea and land operation, the two crew members of the boat and three other people based in towns in Malaga, including the leader of the group, were arrested.
• The boarding, carried out by a assault crew from the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance vessel 'Petrel', with the support of National Police officers, was extraordinarily dangerous, given the adverse weather conditions and the state of the sea in the area.
• The organisation, based in the Costa del Sol and Campo de Gibraltar area, had made a previous attempt to transport the drugs using another vessel of similar characteristics.

October 15, 2021 .- The Tax Agency in a joint operation with the National Police, and in collaboration with the British NCA and the MAOC (Maritime Analysis and Operations Center on Drug Trafficking) , OFAST France, DEA, DIRAN Colombia and the Netherlands Police, have seized 2,500 kilos of cocaine carried by a sailboat intercepted north of the Azores Islands after a boarding carried out by an assault crew from the Customs Surveillance ship 'Petrel' of the Tax Agency, with support from National Police agents.

The operation, known as 'Midas-Ballestrinque', has led to the dismantling of a smuggling organisation based in the Costa del Sol and Campo de Gibraltar area. A combined sea and land operation led to the arrest of the two crew members on the boat, as well as three other people in Malaga, including the leader of the group.

National Police officers began the investigation at the end of 2019 as a result of intelligence work carried out on port infrastructures. This led to the detection of individuals previously investigated for their links to the maritime transport of cocaine on board vessels, mainly sailing boats.

The investigations led to knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation based in Campo de Gibraltar and the Costa del Sol dedicated to bringing in large quantities of drugs on board boats. The organisation was being investigated by both the Tax Agency and the National Police, which led CITCO to agree on a joint investigation by the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance team in Malaga and the Canary Islands, and GRECO Costa del Sol and UDYCO Central.

Deployment at sea and on land

At the beginning of the operation, various faults with the boat initially chosen forced the criminal organisation to obtain another sailing boat that was in optimum conditions for the operation they were going to carry out, which forced them to acquire a sailing boat in the Canary Islands, called 'Goldwasser' (the one now seized), which left for the Caribbean.

As the investigation unfolded, it became clear that, at some point, the ship had loaded cocaine and was on its way back to bring the merchandise into our country. Therefore, authorisation was requested from the flag state of the suspect vessel (Germany) through CITCO (Centre for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organised Crime) to board it before it could transfer the drugs to another vessel.

The boarding was carried out on 8 October by the assault crew of the Special Operations Vessel 'Petrel' of the Customs Surveillance Service some 480 miles north of the Azores Islands, in international waters.

The weather conditions were extremely treacherous and the time of boarding had to be delayed due to the fact that the North Atlantic was affected by Hurricane Sam, a category 4 hurricane with waves of more than 9 metres. In the end, the boarding was successful and there was no resistance from the crew of the sailing vessel. Two members of the organisation were on board and were arrested. The 'Petrel' then began to tow the 'Goldwasser' and set course for the port of Vigo, where it docked today.

At the same time as the boarding of the sailing boat, three members of the organisation were arrested, including the leader of the organisation, and their homes in the towns of Mijas and Fuengirola in Malaga were searched. The searches led to the seizure of 34,600 euros in cash, a pistol, mobile phones used for communications, a motorbike and three high-end vehicles, as well as various documents for study and analysis.

Activity of the organisation

The smuggling organisation was made up of foreign nationals, all of whom had a history of drug trafficking. Those investigated, who were not known to have any legal work, had a standard of living not commensurate with their income, handling large sums of cash and spending large sums on leisure activities, travel and accommodation.

The organisation chose sailing ships for this transport, as they have very concrete and specific characteristics, both in terms of the possibility of loading and masking their activity. As they are commonly used on transoceanic crossings, from Spain to the South American continent and vice versa, their movements can be less suspicious and they are easy to sail and equip with supplies.

Experts in navigation under extreme conditions

The organisation had experienced individuals dedicated to skippering sailing vessels in adverse weather conditions, having carried out the transport during a dangerous gale in the Atlantic Ocean, which jeopardised the success of the operation.

As in other investigations, it has become clear how the organisation used recreational maritime traffic between Europe and the Caribbean islands, in the shadow of which experts in navigation have tried to take advantage of extraordinarily dangerous weather conditions in order to evade the action of the security forces.

Moreover, the members of the organisation were highly mobile, which made it difficult for the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance service and National Police investigators to analyse their activity.

The sailboat, together with the seized drugs and the two arrested crew members, have been transferred to the port of Vigo due to its proximity to the point of boarding, although the investigations have been promoted by the Court of Instruction No. 4 of La Línea de la Concepción.

This is the fourth criminal organisation dedicated to smuggling cocaine into Spain to be disbanded since July on the Costa del Sol. Together, three and a half tonnes of cocaine hydrochloride have been seized from these four organisations.