Watch as elite Spanish officers storm a cargo ship near the Canary Islands to uncover 10 tonnes of cocaine hidden under a mountain of salt

After storming a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, elite officers of the Policia Nacional seized the biggest high-seas drug haul in the history of the force.

A GEO Special Operations Unit agent boarded the vessel, 535 km off the coast of Canary Islands. They discovered nearly 10 tonnes hidden under a salt cargo.

The operation, fittingly dubbed ‘White Tide’, resulted in the arrest of all 13 crew members and the seizure of a handgun which was being used to physically guard the illicit shipment.

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When officers searched the hold they found 9.994 kilograms of cocain split into 294 bags, all of which were buried beneath thousands of tons of salt.

Last week the merchant ship intercepted was en route from Brazil to Europe. The final destination of this vessel is not known.

Despite the drama, however, the raid did not go without incident. The vessel ran out of gas shortly after officers had secured it. It was then left to drift in the open sea for almost 12 hours.

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Sasemar, the maritime rescue service, had to finally tow the boat into the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife where it arrived Sunday.

The vessel is docked currently in Tenerife as police continue to inspect and weigh the drugs.

Police described the bust as a ‘historic blow’ to international drug trafficking, surpassing the previous record set in 1999 when agents seized 7.5 tonnes of cocaine on the vessel Tammsaare.

To put the scale of the seizure into context, the 10-tonne haul is equivalent to nearly a third of all cocaine seized in Algeciras – Spain’s main drug entry point – during the entire year of 2024 (34.8 tonnes).

The operation’s success was attributed to international collaboration between the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), US Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA) and Brazilian Federal Police.

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