Officials from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, working aboard the special operations vessel Petrel I, have intercepted a sailing boat carrying approximately 500 kilograms of cocaine in the waters of the North Atlantic. The joint operation, conducted alongside the Guardia Civil and the National Police, resulted in the arrest of the three crew members on board.
The sailing boat was located by the Petrel I more than 400 miles south of the Canary Islands after several days of tracking. The mission was supported by the French customs vessel Jean Francois Deniau, as part of a joint operational surveillance and control effort in the Macaronesia region, a maritime area stretching from the Azores to Cape Verde.
The operation to locate and track the target took place under adverse weather conditions, featuring four-metre waves and strong surface winds. These harsh conditions forced authorities to maintain surveillance using technical equipment for several days before they could safely board the vessel.
International cooperation proved crucial to the success of the mission, which relied on intelligence gathered under Operation Azul, alongside contributions from the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). This intelligence was channelled through the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC), with additional input provided by Frontex.
At the national level, the intelligence was coordinated by the Centre for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organised Crime (Citco) and analysed jointly by the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, the National Police and the Guardia Civil. Following the interception, the Petrel I arrived at the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, transporting the three detainees, consisting of two Brazilian nationals and one Moroccan national, alongside the seized narcotics.
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