Spain-bound Guyana-registered vessel intercepted with a ton of cocaine; four Guyanese arrested

Last Updated on Monday, 2 October 2023, 9:26 by Denis Chabrol

The fishing vessel MV Mathieu

Agents of Spain’s National Police and Tax Agency Customs Surveillance have seized a ton of cocaine in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Verde on a fishing boat bound for Spain in an operation that has resulted in the arrest of the six crew members of the vessel. ship.

Those arrested are four Guyanese and two Albanians.

The Spanish news agency, Agencia EFE, reported that the cocaine was loaded on the high seas. The operation has been carried out jointly with the Portuguese Judicial Police and in collaboration with the Spanish Navy and the DEA agency of the United States, which warned of the existence of an international criminal organization that intended to transfer a large amount of cocaine from one ship to another on the high seas.

Head of Guyana’s Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU), James Singh declined to provide details in the “ongoing investigation” and told Demerara Waves Online News that Guyanese authorities were aware of “this seizure and are cooperating with the authorities.” ”

The agents observed that the boat, named Mathieu and registered in the port of Georgetown (Guyana), was sailing without a flag, so they asked the Guyanese authorities to confirm the registration in their country and authorize the transfer of the boat to the nearest Spanish boat, Agencia EFE reported.

After locating and boarding the boat, the agents found on the stern deck forty bales of those normally used to transport cocaine hydrochloride, at which time they arrested the crew members, four Guyanese and two Albanians, the police report. General Directorate of the Police and the Tax Agency.

Once the arrested persons were transferred to the Fulmar Tax Agency patrol boat, the towing and subsequent transfer of the fishing vessel to the port of Arrecife (Lanzarote) began.

The information available to the investigators coincided with that possessed by the anti-drug trafficking investigation units of the Portuguese Police. For this reason, a joint operation was established to locate the transport in which the National Police coordinated with Customs Surveillance to locate the vessel and finally its boarding was carried out by the patrol vessel Fulmar in the Atlantic Ocean 600 miles from Cape Verde.