6.5 tons of cocaine seized from boat off the Canary Islands after tip from U.S., Spanish police say

Spanish police said Sunday that they seized 6.5 tons of cocaine and arrested nine people after a U.S. tip-off led them to raid a ship off the Canary Islands a few days ago.

In a statement, police said the narcotics were hidden in the hold of the boat, which was flying a Tanzanian flag and had departed from Panama en route to Vigo, in north-west Spain. The cargo ship, which was approximately 177 feet long, had unusual structures on board which concealed the narcotics, officials said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. federal agency responsible for combating drug trafficking, provided key “information” that enabled the operation to succeed, the press release stated.

Police release video on social media showing officers on a speed boat intercepting the alleged drug-trafficking ship.

Spain is one of the main gateways for cocaine into Europe, due to its links with Latin America, where the drug is produced, and its geographical location in the south-west of the continent.

In June, police forces from multiple countries dismantled a drug trafficking ring that used what authorities called high-speed “narco boats” to smuggle large quantities of cocaine from Brazil and Colombia to the Canary Islands. The ring allegedly used an abandoned shipwreck as a refueling platform for the speedboats.

Spanish police made their biggest ever cocaine seizure last October when they discovered some 13 tons hidden in a shipment of bananas to the southern port of Algeciras. Intelligence from Ecuadoran police tipped off the Spanish authorities, national police said at the time.

Large amounts of drugs have also been confiscated from boats in other parts of the world recently. Earlier this month, U.S. Central Command confirmed that a Pakistani navy ship seized narcotics worth more than $972 million from sailboats in the Arabian Sea. Last month, the French navy seized nearly 10 tons of cocaine worth more than $600 million from a fishing vessel off the coast of West Africa.

In April, the U.S. Coast Guard seized roughly 10,000 pounds of cocaine from a fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean.