Spain Seizes Record 10 Tons of Cocaine at Sea

Spanish authorities have achieved their largest cocaine seizure at sea, intercepting a merchant vessel in the Atlantic Ocean last week and confiscating nearly 10 metric tons of the drug hidden amid a cargo of salt. The operation, which involved international partners and led to the arrest of 13 crew members, underscores ongoing efforts to disrupt maritime drug trafficking routes from South America to Europe.

The Cameroon-flagged ship, which had departed from Brazil and was en route to ports in Spain including Huelva and the Canary Islands, was boarded by officers from Spain's Special Operations Group while underway in the Atlantic. Police recovered 9,994 kilograms of cocaine packed into 294 bales, along with a handgun believed to have been used to guard the shipment. The vessel, part of a multinational criminal network transporting large quantities of the drug, ran out of fuel shortly after the boarding, leaving it adrift for nearly 12 hours. Spain's Maritime Safety and Rescue Society then towed it to Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands for further processing.

The effort, codenamed White Tide, was coordinated with support from several agencies, including the U.S. Drug...