A shipment of 700 kilos of cocaine from South America was seized on board a sailboat that was investigated by the DIA and the Spanish Civil Guard .
Two Italians, a Croatian and a Serb were arrested in the operation; the attention of the Dia had been focused on the two Italians and the Croatian, in particular, for some time, as part of investigations conducted under the coordination of the Palermo DDA which already in November 2022 had led to the location and capture, in Turkey, of a fugitive wanted since 2018 as he was hit by a precautionary custody order in prison issued by the investigating judge of Reggio Calabria as part of the "Pollino - European 'Ndrangheta connection" operation, and sentenced in the first instance to 22 years and 8 months in prison for international drug trafficking.
The investigations made it possible to identify the "Rossio" sailing vessel flying the Polish flag, owned by one of the arrested Italians, as a possible carrier of large quantities of drugs on the Atlantic route.
The investigations into the boat were also conducted by the Spanish Civil Guard, the Croatian and Serbian police. For this reason, at the conclusion of an information exchange initiated through the Central Directorate of Anti-Drug Services on the international cooperation channel, under the aegis of Europol, and making use of the tools made available by the @on anti-mafia network, the account of the vessel was requested jointly, by the DIA and the Spanish Civil Guard, the registration of a control alert at the maritime analysis and operations center (narcotics) in Lisbon.
(Unioneonline/vl)