The Spanish police in cooperation with the Civil Guard successfully organized an anti-drug operation at the end of which a full 4.5 tons of cocaine-type narcotics were seized.
The drugs were seized on a Togolese-flagged cargo ship that was sailing 80 miles east of the Canary Islands. 15 people traveling on the ship were captured, two of them Albanians.
The operation was extremely difficult due to bad weather and rough seas.
According to the information, the narcotic substance was loaded in South America and was camouflaged with a significant amount of coffee.
The identity of the Albanians arrested in this operation is still unknown, while work continues to identify other persons involved in this criminal activity.
This operation, directed and coordinated by the Anti-Drug Prosecution at the National Court, is in addition to those carried out to date on the so-called "Atlantic Route" of cocaine.
Known for use by fishing vessels, traders and freighters coming from South America, they transport narcotic substances in the middle of the Atlantic for their subsequent introduction to the European continent.
The investigations are directly related to a large Albanian organization operating simultaneously in Brazil, Spain and Italy, where several of its members were arrested this week in connection with another warehouse discovered in Santos.
The Canary Islands and Galicia are points of reference for this criminal network.