Portugal’s authorities seized 3.3 tonnes of cocaine and arrested 11 people off the country’s Atlantic coast, after boarding a drug smuggling ship on the high seas, 150 nautical miles off the country’s coast. The seizure is estimated to to be worth around $148 million at European street prices.
The investigation into the gang, which started in 2017, was led by Spanish authorities, Reuters reported.
The seizure took place on 30 January and the ship was traveling to Europe from South America. It was then transferred to the port of Setubal, 50 kilometers south of Lisbon.
Authorities found 80 bales of pure cocaine stored on the ship’s top deck, all of them equipped with hooks to facilitate transfer to smaller boats. According to authorities, the smuggling gang hoped to operate from the ship itself by transferring the cocaine into smaller, faster boats, which would then bring the drugs into Spain and elsewhere in Europe.
Of the 11 arrested, eight were from the Ukraine, one from Georgia, one from the Netherlands and one French.
Global cocaine production reached a record high of an estimated 1,410 tonnes in 2016, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.