Spanish police seizes 7.5 tonnes of cocaine concealed inside tuna fish

7.5 tonnes of cocaine from South America, concealed inside frozen tuna fish that were supposed to be distributed throughout Europe, were found by Spanish police in the northwest port of Vigo, the statement said on Tuesday.

According to police, it was the largest drugs bust by volume in the history of Galicia, an Atlantic region whose rugged coastline—the longest in Spain—has long been exploited for drug smuggling.

In the Eastern port of Valencia, police also discovered 3.5 tonnes of cocaine stashed in shipping containers during a second operation.

A total of 20 people belonging to two organisations of Balkan origin have been arrested, police said, in what they described as a “major blow” to one Europe’s most powerful distribution networks.

An import company was set up by the smuggling network to trade frozen fish and seafood internationally as well as investing in real estate, police said.

It said that during months of surveillance, its officers determined that the firm was covering up its involvement in drug smuggling by sending a voluminous flow of containers by sea from a variety of companies at origin with the Iberian Peninsula always as the destination.

(with inputs from Reuters)