John Culatto
SPANISH police seized 400 kilos of cocaine hidden in the false hull of a sailing boat raided 500 miles from the Azores Islands, authorities said.
National Police agents, working with the Spanish coastguard as well as British and French police forces, arrested the crew of two Bulgarians that are suspected to have brought the illegal drugs from South America.
The forces of law and order towed the sloop, called ‘Frea’, to the Cadiz port after the mid-Atlantic raid.
“A drug-boat hiding 400kg of cocaine hidden in a false hull was intercepted on the high seas,” the National Police tweeted.
“It was crewed by two people that were arrested and was prepared with hard to access compartments where the drugs were hidden.
“This operation was carried out with the Tax Office,” the tweet added.
Once in Cadiz, they managed to locate the majority of the cocaine in a hidden compartment located inside the stern of the boat.
Caribbean connection
The investigation started after police received information that a Bulgarian organized crime group was planning to use Spain as a logistical stop for a big cocaine shipment.
The agents then set about finding out who the suspected drug traffickers were and how they were planning to move the illegal substance.
They finally discovered that a sailing boat anchored in the Caribbean would be used to bring it to Europe.
The 15.85m boat registered in Poland started its journey last July once it had been fully prepared for the task.
On August 5, security forces boarded the yacht 500 nautical miles from the Azores islands.
They found some of the cocaine in the cabins of the sloop and the rest in the Cadiz port search.
Spanish and European organized crime specialists took part in the operation, which helped break up another of the drug smuggling routes from cocaine-producing South America.
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