Spanish Police Seize Cocaine Worth $114 Million from Cattle Ship
Spanish police seized 4.5 tonnes of cocaine with an
estimated street value of 105 million euros ($114 million) after raiding a
cattle ship off the Canary Islands last week.
The ship had stopped at ports in about a dozen
countries before Tuesday's raid, and police said drug smugglers had started
using livestock ships because it was more difficult for police to trace their
illicit cargo.
"International organisations are reinventing
themselves to transport drugs from Latin America to Europe, using livestock to
make the control and localisation more difficult,"
the Spanish police statement said.
Police arrested 28 crew members on the Togo-flagged
Orion V, which had been trailed from Colombia in an operation
by Spanish authorities, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Togo
police.
Officers unloaded dozens of boxes containing the
cocaine on the port side in Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria.
