Yacht crew arrested with 1.2 tons of cocaine in the Caribbean

2023-12-23 19:30:13

During an operation carried out by National Crime Agency (NCA), UK, on ​​Monday 18th, three people, including a Scottish captain, were arrested after 1.2 tonnes of cocaine was seized. The drugs were inside a yacht. The Spanish-registered vessel was almost two thousand kilometers east of the island of Martinique, in the Caribbean Sea.

Also according to the NCA, the military operation aimed to capture a criminal group suspected of transporting cocaine across the Atlantic Ocean to feed the black market in Europe. Inside the boat, agents seized around 40 bales of cocaine, the equivalent of £96 million (more than R$590 million).

All three crew members who were on the yacht at the time of the police approach were arrested and taken to the island of Martinique (French overseas territory). There, they must face drug trafficking charges. One of the three, a 29-year-old man, was from the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland.

Spanish-registered yacht intercepted by the French navy with 1.2 tons of cocaine. Image: National Crime Agency (NCA)/Reproduction

Father and son were arrested

Following the NCA operation, another five people were detained by Spanish authorities in Marbella and Valencia. Among those arrested is a 62-year-old man from Lincolnshire, England, and his 24-year-old son. The arrested father and son were residents of Spain. Both were detained by Spanish National Police authorities while having dinner in a restaurant in Marbella, on Tuesday 19th.

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The five people arrested remain in police custody while the investigation continues. According to the newspaper The globeofficers from the NCA’s international network joined forces with the National Police, French customs, the French navy and the Maritime Narcotics Analysis and Operations Center (in Portugal) in order to arrest the traffickers.

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