Libya involved in Europe’s cocaine trafficking

Spanish authorities intercepted a vessel in the Atlantic that had left Freetown for Benghazi and may have been carrying up to 40 tonnes of cocaine, as reported by The Straits Times and agencies on May 4th.

At the centre of the operation is a ship seized by Spain’s Civil Guard in international waters off the Canary Islands on May 1st, with around 20 people arrested, according to sources from the Unified Association of Civil Guards.

Between 35 and 40 tonnes of cocaine were found on board, which would make the operation a national record for Spain and one of the largest drug seizures internationally.

The vessel reportedly sailed from Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, toward Benghazi in eastern Libya, placing Libya inside the logistical geography of a major Atlantic trafficking case.

Spanish Civil Guard union sources suggested that unloading such a volume directly in Libya would be unlikely. Their assessment was that the shipment may instead have been intended for transfer onto smaller vessels before distribution into European markets.

That makes Benghazi less a confirmed final destination than a declared point inside a wider maritime network. The case points to the way criminal logistics can use North African ports, Atlantic routes and European demand in the same operational chain.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska said the seizure was among the biggest not only in Spain but internationally, while the investigation remains under legal secrecy. The Civil Guard has not confirmed the full operational details.

The more important issue is that a Libyan port appeared in the route of a record scale trafficking operation, at a time when the country’s fragmented security environment continues to attract transnational networks.

Spain has already emerged as one of Europe’s main entry points for cocaine, with previous large seizures at Algeciras and at sea. But the reference to Libyan ports adds another layer to the case by connecting West Africa, North Africa and Europe through a single suspected trafficking corridor.

The Straits Times plus agencies, maghrebi.org