The Guardia Civil police in Galicia this week refloated a homemade semi-submersible vessel that they suspect may have been used to transport cocaine.
The 16-metre fiberglass vessel was spotted on Monday sunk a kilometre off the coast in the Arousa estuary near Pontevedra (Galicia). After being refloated, it was towed to a nearby port where police will fully investigate it – although the government’s delegate to the Galicia region, José Miñones, told reporters that initial checks showed that there were no drugs on board.
He said police had been warned of a possible shipment of drugs arriving in Galicia. Police said it was too early to say whether the vessel had been used to transport cocaine or where it came from.
A similar vessel with three metric tons of cocaine on board was found in another estuary in Galicia in 2019. ALSO READ: Two arrests so far as details of ‘narco-sub’ in Galicia emerge.
In 2021, Spanish police seized a homemade narco-semisubmersible vessel able to carry up to two metric tons of cargo while it was being built in Malaga, on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol.
Similar drug-smuggling crafts have been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, especially off Central and South America. They aren’t so common in Europe. The vessels lie low in the water to escape detection and rarely are able to fully submerge.
Finalmente el sumergible hallado en la zona de Vilagarcía de Aurosa (Pontevedra) es traslado al puerto de Xufre.#GEAS: Grupo Especial de Actividades Subacuáticas de la @guardiacivil pic.twitter.com/sgBIcCtt6n
— Guardia Civil 🇪🇸 (@guardiacivil) March 14, 2023
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