Walter Finch
THE Portuguese Navy has been hailed for its quick action after launching a dramatic high-seas rescue operation to stop armed drug traffickers who had hijacked a container ship bound for Malaga.
At least two gunmen with Eastern European accents stormed the Liberian-flagged vessel Odysseus shortly after it departed Vigo port in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The hijackers accosted the crew and forced them into the engine room at gunpoint while they searched for the stashed cocaine.
READ MORE: BREAKING: Armed men storm ship off Portugal coast
The container ship, which had previously docked at cocaine-infested Ecuadorian ports including Guayaquil and Posorja, was travelling the notorious South America-to-Spain drugs route when the hijacking occurred.
Portuguese naval forces received an emergency alert and immediately deployed a warship, helicopter and specialist assault team to intercept the vessel off the Algarve coast.
The military operation successfully regained control of the ship.
However, according to both Portuguese and international sources, the hijackers were not found on board during the search and are believed to have fled before authorities arrived.
The vessel was escorted to the port of Sines for further inspection, and Portuguese criminal police are continuing their investigation to locate the hijackers.
The incident highlights the increasingly violent tactics being employed by international drug cartels as they adapt to tighter port security across Europe.
Rather than risk detection at Spanish harbours, trafficking networks are now attempting to retrieve cocaine shipments on the open sea before they reach their destinations.
It remains unclear whether the armed gang were the original owners of the suspected drugs haul or rival criminals attempting to steal another organisation’s cargo.
READ MORE: Police seize 1.3 tonnes of cocaine on Malaga-bound ship as stowaway narcos attempted to offload it
What is certain is that they failed to achieve their objective thanks to the Portuguese response.
The brazen hijacking attempt comes just six weeks after Spanish Civil Guard officers foiled a remarkably similar operation on the same Vigo-to-Malaga shipping route.
In that July incident, authorities seized 1,300 kilograms of cocaine from a container ship 40 miles off Cadiz Bay after discovering that stowaways had boarded the vessel to extract drug packages and transfer them to another boat.
That vessel had followed a very similar course to the Odysseus, having previously passed through Guayaquil before sailing to Europe.
The recurring pattern suggests that the Vigo-Malaga corridor has become a prime target for cocaine traffickers seeking to exploit one of Europe’s busiest maritime trade routes.
Both Ecuadorian ports visited by the Odysseus have been identified as major embarkation points for South American cocaine bound for European markets.
Drug enforcement experts say the shift towards high-seas interceptions represents an escalation in trafficking methods, with criminal organisations willing to deploy armed teams and risk violent confrontations to protect multi-million-euro shipments.
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Not clear to me if the Odysseus was or was not carrying drugs. From the article it appears that there is a new brand of robbers who rob other robbers! Is that it?
Hi Mark, yes quite a few now specialize in exactly that…