Spanish Customs boarded the 79-metre Moldovan-flagged merchant vessel ELG at 1pm on 17 June 2019, about 98 nautical miles south-east of Cartagena, and found some 350 bales of hashish resin in its forepeak hold weighing about 10,000 kilos.[1] The patrol vessels Abanto, based in Cartagena, and Paiño, based in Palma de Mallorca, made the boarding with air support after Customs aircraft spotted the vessel towing rigid-hulled inflatable boats; the ELG tried to flee before the Abanto intercepted it.[1] Spanish Customs put the street value of the load at about 20 million euros.[2]
All eight crew members, Ukrainian nationals, were arrested and the vessel was escorted to the port of Cartagena, arriving the next morning to be handed to the judicial authorities.[1][2] The Maritime Intelligence Office of the Murcia Customs Surveillance unit had been tracking the ELG for six months after first suspecting it of drug smuggling.[1][2] The French, Italian and Turkish authorities cooperated in the investigation, alongside Spain’s CITCO anti-terrorism and organised-crime centre and the Mediterranean CECLAD coordination centre.[1]
The Tax Agency said the seizure, codenamed Operation Seifa, was part of its work against the Eastern Mediterranean hashish route, on which it had seized 37,146 kilos of resin in six operations in 2018 alone.[1]
