Police officers discharge drugs from the Orion V, a cattle ship that was seized off the Canary Islands, in the port of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, January 26, 2023. (Borja Suarez/Reuters)
MADRID—Spanish police seized 4.5 tonnes of cocaine, worth an estimated €105 million ($114 million), after raiding a livestock vessel off the Canary Islands earlier this week, Saturday. was announced in
The ships had docked at ports in about a dozen countries before Tuesday’s raid.Drug smugglers began using livestock ships because it was more difficult for police to track illegal cargo, police said. .
“International agencies are reinventing themselves to transport drugs from Latin America to Europe, using livestock to make management and localization more difficult,” said a Spanish police statement. .
Police have arrested 28 crew members of the Togo-flagged Orion V, who were being pursued from Colombia in an operation by Spanish authorities, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Togo police.
Police unloaded dozens of crates of cocaine on the port side of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
($1 = 0.9202 Euro)
Borja Suarez