WATCH: Spanish special forces board Vigo-bound cargo ship and seize 6.5 tonnes of cocaine after tip-off from American DEA

SPANISH special forces have made a major drugs seizure near the Canary Islands from a cargo ship bound for Galicia.

Authorities discovered 6.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden in secret compartments on the vessel after a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) alerted the Spanish to a suspected transatlantic trafficking run.

The Policia Nacional’s GEO unit boarded the vessel at night about 600 miles southwest of the Canary Islands, approaching from a Spanish Navy ship in an operation coordinated with Spain’s Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office.

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The ship, which had departed from Cristobal in Panama and was bound for Vigo, was sailing under a Tanzanian flag despite being Panamanian-owned.

Officers arrested nine crew members on board.

Police say they found the cocaine stashed inside hidden compartments built into the ship’s structure, designed to be invisible during standard port inspections.

The DEA alerted Spanish authorities on October 8, warning of an ‘international criminal organisation’ preparing to move a large shipment of cocaine across the Atlantic.

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GEO officers boarded the freighter at around 9.30pm on Wednesday night, securing the deck before carrying out a hold-by-hold search.

The vessel is now being escorted to Gran Canaria for a full forensic inspection and off-load of the narcotics.

No details have yet been released about the nationalities of the detained crew.

Vigo is a long-established entry point for South American cocaine shipments into Europe, due to its deep-water port, shipping traffic and historic links to Galician smuggling networks.

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Authorities say the seizure is one of the largest maritime cocaine interceptions in recent years.

Last November, officers seized 13 tonnes of cocaine inside banana containers in Algeciras, while 3.6 tonnes were intercepted in Galicia in September and 1.7 tonnes in Valencia earlier this month.

The nine detainees are expected to appear before Spain’s Audiencia Nacional in Madrid in the coming days.

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