The arrest of three leading members of an international cocaine trafficking cartel was made on Tuesday by members of the Coast Guard in Aitoloakarnania and Attica.

There are two men aged 24 and 68 years old and a woman 49 years old who are allegedly involved in the transport of a huge amount of cocaine, weighing 4,223.75 kilograms, which was detected on January 18, 2023 by the Spanish authorities on the cargo ship BLUME, flagged Togo, off the coast of Las Palmas.

According to the Spanish authorities, this criminal organization had started its activities from the end of 2021, with the arrested persons carrying out a series of actions to create offshore and obtain a suitable ship, through which they planned to transport drugs from Brazil to Europe, under the pretext of a commercial coffee cargo.

During the operation to seize the ship, 15 people were arrested and convicted by Spanish authorities, and the estimated value of the cocaine was €164 million.

“The Coast Guard has achieved another decisive blow against organized crime, arresting leading members of an international cocaine cartel,” Shipping Minister Vassilis Kikilias said in a post on the arrest of the three Greeks

“Congratulations to the men and women of the Coast Guard who carry out their duty with dedication and professionalism, day and night: they fight drug trafficking, protect our borders, save human lives,” the Shipping Minister concludes.

The Coast Guard’s announcement on the arrests of the cartel members

The arrest of three (03) leading members of an international criminal organization was made by officers of the Directorate of Narcotics and Smuggling (DI.DI.NA.L.) of the Headquarters of the Coast Guard – Greek Coast Guard, in the context of an ongoing case of trafficking 4.223,75 kilos of cocaine detected by the Spanish authorities on board the cargo ship BLUME, flagged to Togo, following a large-scale operation carried out on 18-01-2023 off the coast of Las Palmas, Canary Islands.

Specifically, in the context of a preliminary examination conducted by the competent Criminal Prosecutor of the Piraeus Prosecutor’s Office, for violations of Law. 4139/2013 (74 A’) “Law on addictive substances and other provisions” and article 187 of the Criminal Code “Criminal Organization” and after months of investigations conducted in execution of the above-mentioned order by members of DI.DI.NA.L., a simultaneous operation was carried out yesterday 15-07-2025 in areas of Aitoloakarnania and Attica, during which three (03) residents, two men aged 24 and 68 years old and a woman 49 years old, were arrested in the context of the execution of warrants issued by the Investigator of the C Department of the Piraeus District Court, against whom, as well as another (01) resident who is wanted, a case was formed.

Thorough systematic processing of data and other collected material, from the further analysis of which resulted in the action of a criminal organization, hierarchical members of which were the arrested persons, at least since the end of 2021. They methodically carried out all the preparatory actions for the establishment of offshore companies to identify, purchase, and manage a suitable ship, which they renamed and renamed to carry out the illegal act of transporting a large quantity of drugs from a Latin American country to Europe. In particular, to achieve their objective, they set up a hierarchically structured criminal organisation, in which, in addition to the above-mentioned arrested persons, foreign nationals participated, creating a wide network of associates, with distinct roles at each stage of the process of purchase, possession, transport and trafficking of the seized drugs. In this context, they jointly organised the ship’s route from the port of Santos in Brazil, to carry out a legal act of loading the ship with a cargo of coffee, and then bypassed the ship’s route to load a quantity of cocaine with a gross weight of 4,223.75 kilograms, which they aimed to transport to the European market.

It is noted that for the above case, 15 persons (14 crew members and one passenger) were arrested by the Spanish authorities and convicted, who were found on board the vessel during the intervention carried out on the high seas, while the value of the seized drug substance is close to the amount of one hundred and sixty-four million euros (€164,000,000).