Spanish authorities have found three tonnes of cocaine on a Greek-managed cargo vessel off the Canary Islands.
The 4,300-dwt Blume (built 2005) was intercepted on Tuesday, 193 nautical miles (360 km) from the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Eldia es Tenerife website reported.
The Togo-flag vessel was reportedly sailing with AIS turned off. The last update was on 17 January.
The Blume had left the port of Santos, in Brazil, on 20 December.
Its destination was listed as Riga in Latvia.
Agents from the Spanish customs vessel Flumar seized the cargo vessel and brought it into Tenerife on Thursday.
An extensive security operation by military and civil authorities, including police divers took more than five hours at Los Llanos dock.
Bags with cocaine inside were then unloaded with a crane in the evening.
The drugs had a value of €180m ($195m).
The report did not mention the fate of the crew members, but Maritime Bulletin reported that all had been arrested.
‘Traffickers’ terror’
The 61-metre special operations ship Fulmar is considered “the terror of drug traffickers” in Spain.
It has two fast boats stowed on either side of its hull. One of these can reach a speed of 50 knots.
Equasis lists the owner of the Blume as Rentoor Chartering and the manager as Greece's Dignatio Corp, its only ship.
The companies could not be contacted.
The vessel was detained twice following port state control checks in 2022.
The first time was in Turkey, when 45 deficiencies were found.
Grounds for detention included a missing oil record book and flag state endorsement certificate, expired firefighting equipment and faults with the oil filtering equipment.
The Blume was then detained in Russia in July with 25 faults.
The only grounds for detention related to lifeboats at that point, however.
