Spanish police have seized a ship off the Canary Islands carrying 30 tons of cocaine and arrested 23 crew members, making it the largest seizure of the drug in European history, Reuters reports.
All crew members will remain in custody without bail due to the gravity of the crime.
The ship, Arconian, which was sailing under the Comoros flag, was seized on May 1, and Spain’s Supreme Court said the cargo was worth more than 812 million euros. The 30-ton haul beat the previous European “record” when German police found 25 tons of cocaine in the port of Hamburg in June 2024, and is more than double the 13 tons of cocaine that Spanish authorities discovered hidden in a shipment of Ecuadorian bananas last year.
Investigators believe the cocaine was intended to be transported to mainland Spain by speedboats.
Weapons were also found on board the Arconian, and six crew members were in hiding when police arrived. 17 of the crew members are from the Philippines, while the six who were in hiding are citizens of the Netherlands and Surinam.
Taking into account the nature of the offence, the risk of flight and the likelihood of further criminal activity, the court decided to keep the crew members in custody.
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