Overview
- Spain’s Guardia Civil, which boarded the Arconian on Friday near Western Sahara, brought it into Las Palmas on Sunday and is still weighing a cocaine cargo that sources say could reach record tonnage.
- Investigators detained about 23 crew members and seized at least three rifles and three pistols after finding bales concealed behind a welded metal wall inside the ship.
- Mexico’s Navy said Sunday it recovered 78 black‑wrapped bales floating 103 nautical miles off Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, totaling a ministerial weight of 2.154 tonnes of presumed cocaine.
- No one was arrested in the Pacific recovery, which officials valued at roughly 4.3 million pesos, while a separate Mexico City operation Monday led to four arrests and 1,278 kilos of marijuana hidden in boxes labeled as eggs.
- The cases highlight two trafficking methods: bales tossed at sea for pickup by small boats in the Pacific and long‑haul cargo runs via West Africa toward Europe, with Spain’s case under court secrecy and Mexico citing 65 tonnes of cocaine seized at sea since October 2024.