Europol-Led Operation Seizes 12 Tons of Cocaine, 9.5 Tons of Hashish on Atlantic 'Cocaine Highway'

A weeks-long operation disrupted drug trafficking routes from Latin America to Europe and broke up what authorities described as "a major cocaine highway" in the Atlantic Ocean.

Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, said the effort from April 13 to April 26 yielded more than 12 tons of cocaine and about 9.5 metric tons of hashish. Officers intercepted eight vessels and arrested 54 people.

The mission drew in international law enforcement agencies under Europol coordination. It focused on networks shipping cocaine from Latin America to Europe via "complex at-sea transfers" designed to dodge detection by steering clear of major ports.

Agents positioned themselves across the Atlantic, zeroing in on waters between Spain's Canary Islands and Portugal's Azores, to spot, track and board suspect vessels over the two weeks, Europol said.

The agency had warned earlier this year that traffickers were altering their Atlantic cocaine routes. Results from the operation confirmed those patterns.

"The recent operation demonstrates the patterns Europol had identified earlier this year: criminal networks are increasingly moving cocaine offshore to reduce exposure to law enforcement at major ports," Europol said. Shipments now cross the Atlantic in multiple stages.

Europol called these "fragmented maritime routes." Traffickers break up the transfers to spread the risks among participants.

Intelligence from the operation shed light on how these networks operate, especially in the Canary Islands-to-Azores stretch known as the "cocaine highway" for its heavy trafficking.

"Criminal networks are becoming increasingly flexible, and internationally connected. But our response is evolving fast too," said Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Europol's deputy executive director of operations. "Over a two-week operational period, law enforcement dealt a significant blow to what is known as the cocaine highway."

Lecouffe said Europol would build on the new intelligence to identify and take down the networks running these trans-Atlantic operations.