MADRID, April 17 (Reuters) – Five people were arrested when a fishing boat carrying nearly three tonnes of cocaine was caught off the Canary Islands, Spanish police said.
AKT 1 was stopped on April 13 by a Spanish Coast Guard patrol about 300 nautical miles south of the Spanish archipelago as it tried to pose as another fishing boat.
Spanish police confiscated 2.9 tonnes of cocaine, valued at a street value of 72 million euros ($ 77.80 million), which was hidden in one of the fuel tanks.
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Police officers dump drugs from the AKT-1 fishing boat confiscated south of the Canary Islands in the port of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, 16 April 2022. REUTERS / Borja Suarez
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The boat was returned to Gran Canaria on Saturday and the five detainees were detained at the Las Palmas detention center.
“When we boarded, (officers) noticed that the fishing boat was carrying a significant number of bundles commonly used for cocaine trafficking, so the five members of the boat’s crew – four Turkish nationals and a Georgian national – were arrested immediately.” the Spanish Civil Guard said.
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Report by Graham Keeley; Edited by Kirsten Donovan
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