Spanish police said Thursday they had broken up a network that saw smugglers swimming on the high seas to help stow Colombian cocaine on container ships bound for Europe and help seize the ships. The bust appeared just three days after Spain announced the largest ever seizure of cocaine at sea.
The network used a so-called “monkeying” technique that “used young people who are good swimmers and from low-income families to load drugs onto ships on the high seas,” police said. statement.
Other members of the scheme went to Spain “to attack containers to intercept ships before they reach the Strait of Gibraltar,” the narrow, narrow body of water that separates Europe and North Africa.
Last year, the crew of a ship bound for the southern Spanish port of Cadiz reported stowaways on deck after finding 1.3 tons of cocaine on board, police said.
Not long after, another ship passing through Portuguese waters raised the ‘vessel hijacking’ alarm as armed police unloaded cocaine hidden in a container.
The investigation found that the network allegedly recovered the drugs from merchant ships to smaller, faster ships near Europe, “overpowering the vessels’ crews and extracting the drugs from the vessels using military techniques and weapons of war.”
Back then, cocaine was stored in southern Spain before being transported by road to other European countries.
Authorities made 30 arrests and seized 2.4 tons (5,291 kilograms) of cocaine, military-grade weapons, ladders used to attack ships, luxury vehicles and cash.
The police released the video on the operation’s social media, revealing to agents suspected drug packages and even cash. The social media post also included images and footage of one of the cargo ships allegedly carrying the drugs.
Spain’s close ties with Latin America and its proximity to Morocco, the main producer of cannabis, make it a key entry point for drugs into Europe.
On Monday, the Spanish police gave their news the largest ever seizure of cocaine at sea after confiscating a container carrying almost 10 tons of drugs in the Atlantic Ocean bound for Europe.
Last October, the Spanish police seized 6.5 tons of cocaine and then arrested nine people A news item from the US He led them to attack a Canarian ship.
In June 2025, police forces dismantled a drug trafficking ring that used what authorities called high speed “narco boats” Smuggling large quantities of cocaine from Brazil and Colombia to the Canary Islands. Presumably the ring he used an abandoned shipwreck as a fueling platform for boats.