Madrid, Jan. 26, 2026 (Lusa) - Spanish police have arrested 105 people from an organisation that brought 57 tonnes of cocaine from Brazil and Colombia into Europe last year, using channels that passed through Portugal, the Spanish government announced on Monday.
According to a statement from the Spanish ministry of the interior, this operation dismantled "the largest network of cocaine trafficking organisations that dominated the Atlantic and Spanish rivers using “narcolanchas”’ (high-speed boats used to traffic drugs).
The dismantled organisation had "a network that extended from Galicia, Portugal, Huelva, Cádiz, Málaga, Almería, Girona and Ceuta, also passing through Morocco" and several islands in the Canary archipelago, said the Spanish government delegate in the region of Andalusia (southern Spain), Pedro Fernández, at a press conference in Seville.
Operation "Sombra Negra" (dark shadow) was carried out over more than a year, coordinated by the Spanish National Police, in cooperation with trans-European agencies combating crime and drug trafficking, such as Europol and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre - Narcotics (MAOC-N).
There was also cooperation from the British National Crime Agency (NCA), the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Moroccan Directorate-General for National Security (DGSN), as well as "authorities from Portugal, France, Colombia and Cabo Verde", according to the Spanish government.
The Spanish government delegate highlighted the "highly sophisticated" logistics and technology used by the organisation, which used so-called “narcolanchas” to transport the drugs, bringing them into mainland Europe via "the coasts of Portugal and Spain".
Pedro Fernández also emphasised "the magnitude, territorial dispersion and organisational capabilities" of the dismantled group.
During the operation, 105 people were arrested and 49 searches were carried out in "two phases" (in June and November last year) in the Canary Islands and Andalusia.
"An organisation believed to be responsible for moving" 57 tonnes of cocaine "in the last year alone", mainly from Colombia and Brazil, was dismantled, he said.
This "Operation Sombra Negra" was carried out as part of the Campo de Gibraltar Security Plan (in southern Spain), a special initiative to combat drug trafficking and organised crime that the Spanish government has had in place since 2018 and which covers the provinces of Huelva, Cádiz, Málaga, Seville, Granada and Almería.
According to a statement from the Spanish ministry of the interior, in addition to the 105 arrests, 10.4 tonnes of cocaine, 70 vehicles, 30 boats, six properties, three firearms, more than €800,000, more than 150 mobile phones, as well as "numerous state-of-the-art communications equipment" and other equipment "intended for maritime transit" valued at around €2.5 million. Bank accounts were also frozen.
"The high speeds of the vessels" and the use of "encrypted communications, satellite terminals, mobile phones that are difficult to trace, and coded language to avoid detection by police forces" allowed the criminal organisation to "operate during the night, hindering police work," according to the statement released today.
MP/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
