Anti-drug forces have seized almost two tonnes of very pure cocaine on a trawler heading for the Spanish Canary Islands and arrested 19 people on the vessel and on land.
The regional government of Galicia in northwestern Spain said naval and customs officials boarded the vessel, the Meniat, just after midnight in the northeastern Atlantic, outside Spanish waters.
Seven crew members were detained, as were 10 suspected traffickers in the Galician town of Barbanza and two other people in the nearby region of northern Portugal.
Between 1.9 and two tonnes of cocaine were found on the vessel, officials said.
They said that among those arrested were three well-known suspected traffickers from the Galicia region, named as Manuel Gonzelez, Ramon Santo Lorenzo and Jose Carlos Pombar.
The names and nationalities of the other people held were not released.
AFP