- Italian border and customs police, Guardia di Finanza, seized over 2.6 tonnes of cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal .
- The illicit drugs , found aboard an 'ultra-fast ocean-going rigid inflatable boat', have an estimated street value of €500 million, with a wholesale value of approximately €78 million.
- Four individuals were arrested in connection with the seizure: two Spanish nationals, a Gibraltar resident, and an Albanian man residing in Italy.
- The operation was conducted in collaboration with Spanish and Portuguese authorities, with Italian prosecutors in Brescia coordinating the investigations.
- This seizure follows earlier warnings from Europol about criminal networks increasingly shifting cocaine trafficking to fragmented maritime routes across the Atlantic, with a previous operation between April 13 and 26, 2026, resulting in the seizure of 11 tonnes of cocaine.
IN FULL
Police seize more than 2.6 tonnes of cocaine from ‘ultra-fast’ boat off Portugal
