MADRID, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Spanish police have made their largest-ever cocaine seizure on the high seas, intercepting a vessel carrying almost 10 metric tons of the drug concealed in a shipment of salt en route from Brazil to Europe, police said on Monday.
The operation led to the arrest of 13 people on board. The vessel, which ended up running out of fuel, had to be towed to port by coastguards in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, police said in a statement.
Officers recovered 294 bales of the drug and a handgun.
Footage showed police officers using shovels and digging with their hands to remove cocaine from beneath the salt, and then forming a line to move the bales to the pier.
The international effort also involved the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Brazil’s Federal Police, Britain’s National Crime Agency and authorities in France and Portugal.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Andrei Khalip and Alex Richardson)
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