Guardia Civil seizes 1,184 kilos of cocaine in Santa Pola

On the morning of 18 September, the Guardia Civil tracked a fishing boat towards Santa Pola and later seized 1,184 kilograms of cocaine from it after it docked. Ten people were arrested and another was placed under investigation, according to details from the operation.

The investigation began at the start of the year, after officers received information that fishing boats might be used to bring cocaine onto the Alicante coast. The morning tracking placed the vessel on a route towards Santa Pola; the reports do not give a separate date for the later boarding.

The cocaine was packed in 40 bales inside ten large containers, partly covered with fishing nets, according to the Guardia Civil account. The force’s Servicio Marítimo Provincial and USECIC unit boarded the boat after it docked and found the containers. The operation was led by the Equipo contra la Delincuencia Organizada y Antidroga, or EDOA, of the Alicante command.

Investigators allege that the group divided tasks between people receiving the drugs at sea and bringing them to port, and others supporting the operation from land. Police identified a man who allegedly watched near the pontoons to warn of a possible police presence. El País reported that a fish-sales company at the port was allegedly used to facilitate or cover the trafficking; that remains an investigative allegation.

The operation unfolded in two phases. In the first, officers arrested three people and searched two homes: a flat in Elche and a villa in Santa Pola. At the villa they seized a boat, a vehicle and a motorcycle. A second phase led to seven further arrests and one more person being investigated, bringing the total to ten arrested and one under investigation.

The ten arrested are accused of drug trafficking, classified in the case as an offence against public health. The judicial authority ordered four of them to be remanded in prison. That decision does not amount to a conviction. The operation was directed by the investigating section of the Court of First Instance in Elche.

Sources: 20minutos, La Vanguardia, Europa Press and El País.