Spanish authorities have revealed they have seized 5.6 tons of cocaine worth more than €340 million in the port of Valencia, in what is the nation’s biggest haul of the drug in four years. Police found the drugs during a search of a suspicious shipping container that arrived in the Mediterranean port, one of Europe’s busiest, from South America, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The authorities began the investigation that led to the seizure in 2021 after becoming suspicious that criminal gangs were “taking advantage” of the legal importation of fruit and vegetables to bring drugs to Spain “from the other side of the Atlantic”. A Guardia Civil police spokesman in Valencia said the investigation was continuing and there had so far been no arrests.
The announcement of the drug seizure comes two days after Europol said law enforcement authorities in six different countries including Spain had taken down a “super cartel” of drugs traffickers controlling about one third of the cocaine trade in Europe.
Spain’s Guardia Civil said a total of 13 people had been arrested in the country as part of that joint operation.
Source: expatica.com