The trading price would have been more than 812 million euros.Image: keystone
May 7, 2026, 7:54 p.mMay 7, 2026, 7:54 p.m
According to the judiciary, Spanish police have seized a record amount of 30 tons of cocaine from a freighter off the coast of Africa. A larger amount of the white powder in a single load is not yet known anywhere in the world. According to the information, the seizure was carried out in cooperation with the US anti-drug agency DEA and the Dutch police.
The drugs were packaged in 1,279 bundles and had a commercial price of more than 812 million euros, the Canary Islands justice department said. The amount of cocaine found last Friday would bring in around 1.5 billion euros in street sales. Nevertheless, the cargo only represents a fraction of the total number of drugs smuggled. Estimates put the tonnage in the four-digit range.
A judge in the Canary Islands has ordered pre-trial detention for all 23 crew members of the “Arconian,” a justice spokesman said. The 90-meter (300-foot) Comoros-flagged ship was in West Africa en route to Libya when it was stopped off the coast of Western Sahara, according to Sierra Leone’s shipping information services. According to the authorities’ assessment, the drugs, which most likely came from South America, were to be loaded on the high seas onto smaller speedboats, which would then transport the cocaine to Europe. (sda/dpa)