In the early hours of 7 September 2018 officers of the Tax Agency’s Customs Surveillance unit boarded a sailing yacht about 100 miles east of Cabo de Palos and found more than 200 bales of the type used to carry hashish resin.[1][2] The 16-metre sloop flew the United States flag under the name Bella, though the name Amira and a different port of registry shown on its transom did not match its official papers.[1][2] Pending a final weigh-in, the agency estimated the haul could exceed 7,000 kilograms of hashish resin, worth more than €11 million on the illicit market.[1][2]

The operation, codenamed Zacatín, began when French Customs alerted the Tax Agency about the yacht, after which Customs Surveillance aircraft tracked it in an area commonly used to load such consignments.[1][2] The Cartagena-based patrol vessel Colimbo IV made the boarding at about three in the morning.[1][2] The two crew members, Russian nationals from St Petersburg, were arrested and taken with the yacht and the drugs to the Port of Cartagena.[1][2] They were to be brought before the duty Central Investigating Court of the National High Court.[1][2]

Investigators suspect organisations based in North African countries are moving large hashish consignments along an eastern Mediterranean route on pleasure, merchant or fishing vessels for storage and later redistribution toward Europe, possibly using them as mother ships for smaller craft reaching the Spanish or Italian coasts.[1][2]