- Spanish police are investigating what appears to be an ocean-going narco-submarine that sunk in the waters of Galicia in the country's northwest.
- Galicia has long been an entry point for cocaine smuggled from South America, but the use of this kind of vessel would be a first.
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Spanish police were studying Monday how to refloat a submarine believed to be carrying tons of cocaine, which if confirmed would make it the first time such a vessel has been found to be used in drug trafficking in the country.
The submarine was intercepted Sunday in an inlet in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia, an official from the government's office in the province of Pontevedra told the Associated Press.
The winding Galician coast, with secluded inlets and isolated beaches, has long been used by smugglers bringing cocaine by sea from South America into Europe.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with government rules, told the AP a police diver had entered the submarine and extracted one package of cocaine.
Media reports said the vessel - believed to be about 72 feet long - could be carrying 3 metric tons of cocaine. A Galician government official told news outlet El Periodico that there were drugs inside the vessel.
Sources familiar with the investigation told Spanish newspaper El País that the groups responsible for the shipment must be "big, since just the submarine itself must have cost around €2.5 million," or about $2.75 million.
The official from the government's office told the AP two Ecuadorian crew members were arrested on land Sunday after police moved to seize the submarine while a third managed to flee. He said it was not clear if the vessel had been purposely sunk by the crew or had suffered some mechanical problem.
The official said the submarine was some 20 feet under water and that bad weather was complicating how police might be able to bring it to the surface.
He said Spanish police, in coordination with other countries' forces, had been monitoring the submarine's journey for some days.
According to El País, the vessel departed from Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine and a frequent embarkation point for narco subs, which typically travel through the Pacific to Central America or Mexico with multiton loads of cocaine bound for the US.
Portuguese police confirmed the submarine passed by Portugal and that detectives and the Portuguese navy were involved in a joint operation with Spanish authorities to track it. However, a police spokesperson said Portuguese authorities were not immediately making public any details of the operation. The spokesperson spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance with police rules.
The Spanish official could not say from which country the submarine had come, but media reports said it was suspected to have set off from Colombia.
The sources familiar with the investigation told El País that the sub was built in Guyana and had been in operation "for years," making "at least two trips a year."
Another homemade narco sub was found in an estuary in Vigo, also in Pontevedra province, in late 2006, according to El País. It was carrying about 1,650 pounds of cocaine and was loaded with fuel and its engine was running. Six people later received two-year prison sentences for trying to smuggle cocaine into Galicia.
Besides Galicia's inlets, gangs often use Spain's southwestern port of Algeciras to smuggle cocaine into Spain. In April 2018, police found nearly 9 tons of cocaine concealed in a banana shipment from Colombia in the port. Two months earlier, authorities seized 6 tons of cocaine there.
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The AP's Ciarán Giles reported from Madrid. AP writer Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.