Spanish forces seize 20 tonnes of hashish from freighter off Almería
Spanish forces boarded the freighter MARTIN N off the southeastern coast near Almería and found nearly 20 tonnes of hashish hidden in secret compartments, detaining all twelve crew members. Spain called the vessel Libya-bound and part of a terror-financing probe; shipping intelligence gave its route as Portugal to Turkey.
🇪🇸 Mediterranean Sea off Almería, southeastern Spain
On 23 September 2016 Spanish forces intercepted the freighter MARTIN N off the southeastern coast near Almería and found nearly 20 tonnes of hashish hidden in secret compartments; all twelve crew members, eleven Ukrainians and one Uzbek, were detained.[1][2]Spain’s Guardia Civil said the Panama-flagged vessel was bound for Libya and the seizure formed part of a global operation against the financing of armed groups in North Africa and the Middle East, run with Europol and French customs with Italian air support.[1]
The U.S. Navy’s threat-to-shipping reporting instead described the vessel as en route from Aveiro, Portugal, to Mersin, Turkey, and credited the Spanish Coast Guard with the seizure.[2]The Guardia Civil said the boarding belonged to an operation launched in 2013 by Spanish, Moroccan, French, Italian and Greek authorities with support from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, in which some 100 tonnes of hashish had been seized and 109 people detained.[1]A French customs spokesman called the MARTIN N seizure one of the biggest hashish seizures ever in Europe.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The sources give the amount as "nearly 20 tonnes" or "20 tons" without an exact weight; this report records 20,000 kg.
Libyan Express says the freighter was bound for Libya, while the shipping-intelligence report gives its route as Aveiro, Portugal, to Mersin, Turkey; the destination is unresolved.
No names or later court outcomes for the twelve detained crew members were published in the opened sources.
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