Spanish Police Stop Ship as Drug Cartel Attempts to Steal Cocaine Shipment
Spain’s Guardia Civil is working to sort out the details of one of its more unusual cocaine busts. They moved to stop and inspect a suspect inbound containership only to find it had already been boarded by nine individuals who appear to have been attempting to steal the cocaine from a rival gang.
The police reported they were tracking the unnamed vessel as it was traveling from Vigo to Malaga and had a suspicion that there could be smuggled cocaine aboard. Media reports are saying the vessel was coming from Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was located while it was 40 miles off the Bay of Cadiz.
The vessel was directed into the port of Cadiz, where a full search was launched. When the forces boarded the vessel, they discovered that nine individuals had already boarded the ship and had removed cocaine bales from the containers. A total of 38 bales of cocaine were found near the containers, with a total weight of approximately 1,300 kilos.
#OperacionesGC | Intervenidos 1.300 kg de #cocaína en un portacontenedores en la Bahía de #Cádiz.
— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) July 17, 2025
??Fue asaltado por polizones en alta mar para extraer los fardos de los contenedores y descargarlos a una embarcación
??El portacontenedores fue localizado a 40 millas en la ruta… pic.twitter.com/vmkhpUIpYR
The police released video of their armed forces searching the vessel for additional individuals. The reports said that due to the size of the vessel, it was taking time to complete the search. The police suspected there could be additional cocaine aboard the vessel that had yet to be discovered.
Media reports indicate that the nine individuals were also taken into custody and are being interrogated. The indication is that they were from a rival cartel and were attempting to offload the cocaine bales onto a small boat while the containership was at sea.