A major Canary Islands drug bust led to the seizure of four tons of cocaine from a cargo ship, with ten crew members—primarily from Turkey—taken into custody, Spanish authorities announced on Friday.
The Tanzanian-flagged vessel was intercepted 240 kilometers northeast of Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, an archipelago situated off the northwest coast of Africa. The ship had followed an unusual route, traveling from Turkey to West Africa before heading back toward the Iberian Peninsula without any officially scheduled loading or unloading operations. It was localized by a Beechcraft KA350 reconnaissance plane and the patrol ship JEAN-FRANCOIS DENIAU, which tracked its suspicious movements.
In a joint operation between French and Spanish customs, authorities discovered 3,281 kilos of cocaine divided into 150 bales, hidden in a compartment described as “very difficult to access.” Of the ten crew members arrested during the Canary Islands drug bust, five are Turkish nationals, including the ship’s captain, while two others hold Azerbaijani citizenship and one is Dutch, according to officials.
