Spanish Police detained a fishing boat loaded with nearly three metric tonnes of cocaine south of the Canary Islands on April 13.
Authorities intercepted the AKT 1 around 555 kilometers south of the Spanish archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.
Spanish Police arrested the five crew members, four Turkish citizens, and one person from the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia.
Authorities confiscated 2.9 tonnes of cocaine, estimated to have a street value of 72 million euros.
“When we boarded, (officers) observed the fishing boat was transporting a significant number of bundles usually used for cocaine trafficking, so the five crew members of the boat four of Turkish nationality and a Georgian citizen were immediately arrested,” a spokesman for the Spanish Civil Guard said.
Spanish authorities returned the AKT 1 to Gran Canaria and detained the five detainees in Las Palmas on Saturday.