Police in Spain have arrested three men thought to have piloted a “narco-submarine” carrying more than 3.6 tonnes of cocaine from South America to the north-western region of Galicia, after the trio’s wet clothes and claims to be pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago raised suspicions.
The investigation, which has led to a total of 14 arrests, began in August after Policía Nacional officers, working with the US Drug Enforcement Agency, detected an alleged drug-smuggling gang based in the Galician town of Outes that was said to be concealing its activities by posing as a company selling and repairing nautical equipment.
On 13 September, the gang’s high-powered boats were spotted heading out of the nearby port of O Freixo, prompting police to scramble teams to intercept the boats when they came back, allegedly loaded with drugs brought to the coast in the semi-submersible.
As soon as the boats returned and the gang began loading bales of cocaine into two trailers, officers pounced, they said. A tonne of the drug was recovered after one of the trailers overturned during a high-speed chase, and the remainder of the seizure was discovered the following day, hidden under a tarpaulin on a nearby beach, police said.
The alleged crew of the sub – a Colombian man and two Ecuadorians – were later arrested “after trying to evade officers by fleeing in a taxi in wet clothes, pretending to be pilgrims”, according to a police statement. Their soaking and suspicious appearance caught the attention of the taxi driver and they were arrested by local police, who found a wetsuit in one of their rucksacks.
The sub itself is thought to have wrecked or been scuttled a few miles off the coast of Galicia.
As well as seizing 3.65 tonnes of cocaine and arresting the 14 people on suspicion of drug-trafficking and belonging to a criminal organisation, the Policía Nacional has confiscated €54,680 (£47,700), two boats, five cars and a trailer.
Antonio Martínez Duarte, the head of the Policía Nacional’s drug and organised crime unit, said it was rare for officers to be able to intercept cocaine shipments when they first reached land.
“After hours of sacrifice and silent work, we’ve been able to arrest the crew and seize the drugs on land, something that isn’t that common in Galicia,” he told La Voz de Galicia.
“The problem in Galicia is getting into these places which they know and which we don’t, and where they can drive in the dark and we can’t. But this time we were there, watching how they carried out an operation. And we managed to get them when they took off.”
Although narco-subs had been used regularly in Colombia and other parts of South and Central America for more than 30 years, they remained a novelty in European waters until 2019, when the first such vessel, laden with three tonnes of cocaine, was found scuttled in a Galician cove.
Spanish police say the number of “narco-sub” alerts has surged over the summer, from one every three months to more than five a month.
