48 arrested in international cocaine gang bust

A major cocaine smuggling operation that used a network of speedboats to transport drugs from South America to the Canary Islands has been taken down, police have said.

Almost four tonnes of cocaine trafficked from Brazil and Colombia were seized and 48 suspects, arrested in raids across Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.

Spain’s Policia Nacional said the gang used 11 so-called narco boats to smuggle the drugs across the Atlantic in a complex operation that involved using an abandoned wreck at sea as a refuelling platform.

Police forces from Europe, the UK, South America and the US were involved in planning the raids, dubbed Operation Black Shadow.

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed that a British national was among those arrested.

Europol said the gang used speedboats “repeatedly, departing from strategic points in the Atlantic Ocean to a mother ship transporting the cocaine”.

Investigators revealed the gang used “a complex encrypted communications system to evade law enforcement, including the use of satellite terminals, hard-to-trace phones and a coded language”.

Police said the raids were months in the planning and saw 29 properties searched, 69 vehicles seized – including boats and jet skis – and cash and firearms recovered.

Details of the raids shine a light on the complexity of the networks international drug smuggling gangs use to get narcotics into Europe, a major market for South American-based cartels.

Spanish police said the operation had “dismantled one of the largest criminal organisations dedicated to cocaine trafficking”.

The force also said it had identified a local network in the Canary Islands responsible for distributing the cocaine once it had arrived from South America.

Footage of the raids published by Spanish police showed armed and masked officers raiding several houses, arresting suspects and carrying out searches.

It is not the first time police have intercepted a large amount of cocaine bound for the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory and popular tourist destination lying around 100km (62 miles) off the west African coast.

Police announced in December that they had intercepted a Venezuelan fishing boat 1,000 miles out at sea.

It was discovered the vessel – which was so dilapidated it sank while being towed to shore – was carrying 3.3 tonnes of cocaine.

Commenting on the latest raid, an NCA spokesperson said: “Alongside our international partners, we are relentless in our efforts to tackle drug trafficking across borders, ensuring it’s seized before it reaches the UK criminal supply chain.”