A total of eleven countries were involved in the extensive investigation, which began in 2020. Law enforcement officers finally succeeded in breaking up what they claimed was the largest gang that had been transporting cocaine from South America to Spain on sailing yachts for years.
Code name "Professor
The head of the gang is said to be a South American who has been established in the drug trade for 20 years, who is known as "Professor" and has worked with the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels. Together with them, the "Professor" organised the production and transport up to the shipment to Spain, including hiring the crew and the blessing of the respective sailing yacht by a priest.
Fleet of ten yachts
According to the police, a middleman in Spain was then responsible for the trafficking once the ship had sailed. He had a fleet of around ten yachts at his disposal, each of which transported up to one tonne of the drug per Atlantic crossing. The Spaniard belonged to the so-called Balkan cartel on the Costa Brava, 16 of his drug sailors came from Norway.
Bases in several Spanish harbours
There were bases in Valencia, Alicante, Almería, Málaga and on the Canary Islands, from which ports in Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Barbados and Panama were called at.
Sailing yachts are common means of transport in the drug trade. Although the quantities transported are comparatively small, the detection rate is relatively low.
Lasse Johannsen
Deputy Editor in Chief YACHT
