Spain Captured Over 2,200 lbs. of Cocaine Outside the Canary Islands

Steven Petrov

The Paw Print

The Spanish naval police have been slowly turning into an absolute “nightmare” for all of the drug smugglers and drug cartels who are trying to import and move large amounts of cocaine as well as other drugs throughout the Mediterranean. The Spanish police and the Ministry of Defense made an official announcement on Monday November 17^th, for the successful capturing of a yacht outside of the Canary Islands coast.  This is the second consecutive success that the Iberian country has against the drug cartels from North Africa and their “colleagues” from mainland Spain. The traffic of narcotics in the Mediterranean has been a prolonged and major problem, with which the governments from both sides of the Mediterranean, Northern and Southern, have tried to battle. However, the really strong Italian mafia, as well as their Spanish counterparts has always developed ways and schemes to continue their “business.”

This is why the huge success of the two consecutive Spanish naval police operations is absolutely remarkable. They not only managed to capture over 3,500lbs of cocaine, but they did it in just a 10-day span. The exact purity and quantity will be reported as soon as the seized vessel is placed in the Las Palmas harbor. The report on the operation itself gives brief information about the vessel itself and for the criminals on it. No names have still been published, but the nationalities of the drug smugglers were announced. The no-flag vessel was captained by two Ukrainians and a Serbian, who are expected to be well-known by the authorities as International criminals, and their further revealing is highly anticipated by the media. Czechs captained the boat that was seized 10 days prior to the Spanish naval police’s latest operation.

Four criminals were arrested as well as a little over 1,000lbs of cocaine was seized. It was of no surprise that the nationalities of the criminals arrested in both operations were Eastern European. After all, Spain is still the main import place for drugs to get in Europe by sea. Ukraine, Serbia and The Czech Republic are all eastern-centrally located in the “Old Continent.” The authorities assume that the drug smuggling channel that begins from the import harbors of Spain, further extends to the more centrally located countries in Europe.

This enables the drug cartels to distribute the narcotics in various ways and destinations. Once the drugs enter the “Old Continent” their capturing becomes increasingly more difficult, because of the different suppliers, distributers and users. This is the main reason why the Spanish success is viewed as a European success, because in literal terms the Spanish police stopped over 2,200lbs from entering to the heart of the continent.  The Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs also spoke in the beginning of November about the significant increase in cocaine captures throughout 2013. No specific reasons were pointed for that, but the responsiveness and alertness of the Spaniards is definitely impressive and of significant importance in the fight against drugs in Europe.