The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) is playing a role in a major international investigation following the recent cocaine bust in the Atlantic Ocean on a Guyana-registered vessel that was destined for Spain.
Agents of Spain’s National Police and Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency have seized some 1000 kilograms of cocaine off the vessel, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Verde.
The operation resulted in the arrest of six crew members, four Guyanese and two Albanians.
Once the arrested persons were transferred to the Fulmar Tax Agency patrol boat, the towing and subsequent transfer of the fishing vessel began to the Port of Arrecife, the main port facility for Lanzarote which is one of the Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa administered by Spain.
The vessel in question, named Mathieu, is registered in the port of Georgetown, Guyana and was sailing without a flag.
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.
