A police crackdown on international organized crime has halted a massive cocaine shipment in waters off the Canary Islands, leaving the drug mafia with a multimillion-euro financial loss. Officers from the Guardia Civil’s Maritime Service intercepted, 70 nautical miles south of Gran Canaria, a rigid inflatable boat carrying 3,360 kilograms of drugs distributed across 139 bales. According to the different stages of commercial distribution, the shipment’s value on the illicit market reaches astronomical figures.
The official judicial valuation used by the Ministry of the Interior, based on the reference price tables of the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime for 2024 and 2025, puts the basic value of this quantity of pure drugs at around €100 million. However, at the wholesale entry stage via the Atlantic route, the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) estimates in its recent analyses for 2025 and 2026 that the shipment would be worth between €43 million and €67 million in transactions between major cartels.
The true economic impact is measured at the retail level on European streets. According to data from the Spanish Observatory on Drugs and Addictions, breaking up the shipment and selling it at an average price of €60 per gram, combined with the usual adulteration and “cutting” process that doubles or triples the substance’s final volume, could have generated more than €200 million and up to €400 million for the criminal network.
The maritime operation began when the patrol boat detected a ‘goma’ fitted with several high-powered outboard engines traveling at high speed. After officers ordered the vessel to stop, the crew made a desperate attempt to flee, carrying out highly dangerous evasive maneuvers in open waters. The agents’ swift intervention blocked the vessel’s path, allowing them to board it and immediately subdue the occupants on a deck packed with drug bales.
The dangerous nature of the operation was confirmed during an inspection of the vessel, where officers found an assault rifle and a light machine gun ready to fire. The prohibited possession of these military-grade weapons reflects the network’s substantial financial investment in protecting a shipment of this value from possible ‘tumbos,’ or thefts by rival organizations.
The five detainees, aged between 21 and 41, have been remanded in provisional custody at the disposal of the court. They face charges of large-scale offenses against public health, membership in a criminal organization, serious disobedience and unlawful possession of weapons of war, after the logistics of one of the year’s most economically significant anti-drug operations in the Canary Islands were uncovered.
The article Drug-smuggling speedboat seized in the Canary Islands with 3 tonnes of cocaine valued at up to €400 million was first published on canarymaritime.com.
