(MENAFN- Hip Hop-24) Spanish police announced, on Saturday, the seizure of a livestock ship off the Canary Islands that was smuggling 4.5 tons of cocaine.
Police said they had arrested 28 crew members from nine countries.
The Spanish daily El Pais reported that the seized cocaine had a market value of more than $150 million and was hidden among 1,750 cattle.
The newspaper quoted a police statement as saying, "International organizations are finding new ways to transport drugs from Latin America to Europe, this time through the use of livestock, to make it difficult to inspect and seize them."
The ship "Orion V" was sailing under the flag of the African country, Togo, coming from Colombia.
According to police, the ship has been under surveillance since 2020 on suspicion of transporting "large quantities" of drugs around the world.
Police said the ship carried cargo to countries such as Libya, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Willemstad (the capital of the Netherlands Antilles), Egypt, the UAE, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Macau, Kuwait and Qatar.
This is not the first time that the Spanish police have searched the ships, but in their previous attempt they came out empty-handed.
A week ago, the police carried out a similar operation, as a result of which they confiscated 4.5 tons of cocaine on board a ship that was also under the Togolese flag and was transporting coffee.
Spanish authorities say they have launched a campaign targeting the "Atlantic cocaine lane commonly used by South American traders and fishing vessels to transport cocaine to Europe and Asia".
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