Spanish Police Seize 7.5 Tonnes Of Cocaine Hidden In Frozen Tuna
This is the moment Spanish police seize an astonishing 7.5-tonne haul of cocaine hidden inside bricks of frozen tuna.
The massive stash, worth nearly USD 600 million, was seized by Spanish police at Vigo port in Galicia from a cargo ship said to be controlled by the Albanian mafia.
A second haul of 3.4 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden behind a false wall in a lorry container was confiscated in Valencia.
Between them, the two loads are worth nearly USD 800 million, according to UN trafficking tables.
Video footage of the seizures shows officers piling huge bricks of frozen tuna loins onto trolleys as they unload the crooked cargo.
Further footage shows officers in the second raid cutting through a lorry container’s false wall to find hundreds of bricks of cocaine on the other side.
Officers later showed off the haul stacked in a huge square outside their headquarters.
Police say 20 people were arrested in a linked raid.
Spain’s Central Drug and Organised Crime Unit boss, Chief Commissioner Antonio Martinez Duarte, said the ops were part of a crackdown on Balkan gangs.
Many see Spain as a gateway from South America to Europe, and police and tax officials followed the shipping companies used by traffickers.
Spanish National Police said in a statement obtained by Newsflash on 12th December: “The National Police, with the collaboration of the Tax Agency, have seized 11 tonnes of cocaine from two criminal organisations prepared for distribution in Europe.
“A total of 20 people who were part of two organisations of Balkan origin have been arrested.
“In the operation carried out in Vigo, 7,500 kilogrammes of cocaine were seized that were hidden between frozen tuna loins, making it the largest seizure of this narcotic drug in Galicia.
“During the operation carried out in Valencia, 3,400 kilogrammes of cocaine were seized.”
They said that the latest bust came off the back of a parallel investigation into drugs sourced from South America.
They said: “The investigations carried out by the National Police and the Tax Agency, which have had the collaboration of other international organisations, began in parallel, detecting a complex business network dedicated to the shipment of maritime containers from Latin America to different ports on the Iberian Peninsula.”