Intervened 150 kilos of cocaine submerged in the helmet of a merchant who made the commercial route in Vigo | Spain

The seizure of another cocaine stash, 150 kilograms in total, in a joint operation of the National Police and the Tax Agency, places the Puerto de Vigo as one of the main drug entries in the national territory. The drug sought to be introduced in Spain through this dock and after a thorough registration was located attached to the ship of the ship below the flotation line, so they had to intervene divers of the Special Operations Group, together with agents of the Customs Surveillance Maritime Base in Vigo.

The operation has been carried out with the collaboration of the American agency DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) which warned of the possible entry in Spain of this new stash valued at about four million euros. The investigation began in early April when, through the American agency, information was received that an international criminal organization intended to introduce in Spain a significant amount of cocaine through the port of Vigo.

The inquiries allowed to find out that, for the transport of drugs to Spain, it was intended to use a boring ship that would dock in Vigo. In addition, the agents detected that the concealment method could be by “attachment” in the submerged part of the entrepreneur’s helmet, as reported on Tuesday by the Ministry of Interior.

Once the Barco was tied to Puerto in which cocaine was suspected, in coordination with the Vigo Customs Surveillance Service, an inspection of the submerged part of the ship was carried out. During the inspection in the port enclosure they were located in one of the compartments of the five bags that hid the 150 kilograms of cocaine. The investigation remains open and at the moment there are no detainees.

Cocaine mafias have increased their activity in the port of Vigo Since in April 2024 a new commercial route was inaugurated with South America, operated by the German company Hapag Lloyd, for the transport of fruits and frozen fishing. This new maritime line with huge commercial and economic repercussions has also been an opportunity for cocaine business owners, especially Balcanic organizations that have been intercepted in recent months trying to introduce voluminous loads whose seizure already exceeds 10 tons of cocaine.

This weekly commercial route stops in ports such as those of Ecuador, considered main cargo shipping points. Specifically, Latin American scales are Buenaventura (Colombia), Paita (Peru), Posorja and Guayaquil (Ecuador), Manzanillo (Panama), Puerto Limón (Costa Rica) and Cartagena (Colombia). In addition to Vigo, the line links with Malaga, Valencia, Barcelona and three Italian ports that complete the itinerary.

Up to eight ships perform the rotation to the Vigo container terminal. In several of them the seasoning were located in the middle of intense traffic with an estimated average of 300 loading and unloading movements by ship. Police cooperation for drug confiscation has allowed you to track some of the confiscated cargoes since its exit of ports such as Guayaquil (Ecuador).