Narco-boat crew member dies after pursuit and collision involving customs surveillance vessel off Spanish coast

There has been another death linked to drug trafficking in the waters off the province of Cádiz, in the Spanish region of Andalusia. This time, a member of the crew of a narco-boat used for drug trafficking died on Saturday evening in the Caños de Meca area, in Barbate, during a chase involving a patrol boat from the police service. customs supervision of the Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera (SVA). During the collision between the two vessels, another of the occupants of the narco-boat was also injured.

According to police sources, the collision between the two vessels occurred around 9:40 p.m. after the traffickers' boat made a risky maneuver to try to move away from the SVA vessel. After the impact, the two crew members of the pleasure boat fell into the water and were injured.

The two people were immediately rescued and taken to the port of Barbate. However, before reaching land, one of the crew members, an undocumented Moroccan, suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest. SVA agents and port medical assistance services tried in vain to resuscitate him.

The other crew member, a Spaniard with a history of drug trafficking, was injured, although the severity of his injuries remains to be assessed.

Following the collision, another customs surveillance vessel recovered the narco-boat and four of the hashish bales carrying 113 kilos of the drug.

Four deaths

Saturday's death in Caños de Meca is the fourth death linked to drug trafficking in the Strait of Gibraltar this year. On February 10, two Guardia Civil officers (David Pérez Carracedo, 43, and Miguel Ángel Gómez González, 39) were killed when their boat was deliberately rammed by a narco-boat in the port of Barbate.

On January 31, a “petaquero” (an assistant to the drug trafficker who refueled the gliders) died at the mouth of the Guadalquivir after colliding with another Guardia Civil patrol boat.