Spain seizes 4.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a cattle ship
Spanish police announced on Saturday the seizure of 4.5 tons of cocaine off the Canary Islands on board a Togolese cargo ship coming from Latin America.
The Orion 5 ship, which transports livestock from Latin America to Middle Eastern countries, has been under close watch for more than two years.
It has already been "examined and searched, but no drugs were found inside it, although there was enough evidence," according to the police.
However, “naval air” equipment finally made it possible, on Tuesday, January 24, to seize cocaine hidden in a silo that was supposed to be used to feed livestock, according to the police.
This operation, in which the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the International Operations Center for Maritime Narcotics Analysis, the Togolese authorities and the Spanish police participated, made it possible to arrest 28 crew members, of nine different nationalities.
The Orion 5 cargo ship, which was flying the Togolese flag, was of the same sizes as another Togolese cargo ship that was intercepted in mid-January in the same area, 62 nautical miles southeast of the Canary Islands, bearing the name “Bloom” and in which the same amount of Cocaine.
Police said in a statement that nine tons of the drug were seized in January.
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