Boats caught off coast of Canary Islands, towed back to land simultaneously…
Spanish police said on Wednesday that they nabbed two sailboats carrying more than 1.1 tons of cocaine.
The sailboats were both snagged off the coast of the Canary Islands, on the same route where two other major drug busts occurred this year.
In January, police seized 4.5 tons of cocaine being smuggled on a cattle ship and another 4.5 tons on a ship supposedly shipping coffee.
In the latest bust, police said customs agents stopped a sailboat called My Love and sailing under a Belgian flag as part of a routine check.
Agents saw packages usually used to transport cocaine “in plain sight,” according to the police statement, and got authorization from Belgian authorities to search the ship.
Police discovered that the sailboat was indeed carrying kilograms of cocaine and arrested its two Spanish crew members.
However, at the exact same time, the Spanish police’s special operations vessel called Fulmar was already engaged in another drug bust.
Another set of agents had seized a different sailboat, also carrying cocaine, and Fulmar saw already toeing it back to the Canary Islands for investigation.
Even so, the Fulmar managed to pick up My Love and toed both ships simultaneously in what police call “a rare double intervention.”
Police said the Atlantic drug route, which passes off the coast of the Canary Islands, is a common way for cocaine to travel from South America to Europe and beyond.
