In a major blow to international drug smuggling, Spanish police stopped a ship in the Atlantic Ocean that was carrying nearly 10 metric tonnes of cocaine hidden under salt. The vessel was on its way from Brazil to Europe when it was intercepted during a coordinated operation on Monday, 12th January.
Spanish police have made their largest-ever cocaine seizure on the high seas, intercepting a vessel carrying around 11 US tons of the drug concealed in a shipment of salt en route from Brazil to Europe, police said https://t.co/Z9iMpTry9H pic.twitter.com/KCvIfXizqD
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 12, 2026
The ship was boarded on the high seas by Spain’s Special Operations Group after intelligence inputs flagged the cargo. Inside the containers, officers found 9,994 kilograms of cocaine packed into 294 bales, carefully buried beneath salt to avoid detection. A handgun was also recovered during the search.
All 13 crew members on board were taken into custody. By the time the operation ended, the ship had run out of fuel and had to be towed by coastguards to the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Police later released footage showing officers digging through salt with shovels and bare hands before forming a human chain to move the heavy drug bales onto the pier.
Spanish authorities said the operation was carried out by the Spanish National Police with support from multiple international partners. These included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Brazilian Federal Police, National Crime Agency, and law enforcement agencies from France and Portugal.
Police said this seizure marks the largest amount of cocaine ever recovered by Spain on the high seas, highlighting both the scale of drug trafficking routes from South America to Europe and the growing level of international cooperation aimed at stopping them.
