There's been another huge stash of bulk cocaine seized by police from a private yacht
This time the biggest ever, a staggering 5.2 tons found aboard a 77-foot sailboat. The yacht
was captured last week by the Portuguese navy in the Atlantic Ocean — on the high seas so to speak
The Mob Reporter here with the story of a remarkable journey from South America
that almost made it to market in Europe, where it would have been a masterstroke
worth some 300 million dollars for the young swashbuckling narco sailor said to be behind it
Let me tell you about it. When naval vessels carrying police teams from Spain and Portugal
intercepted the sailboat more than 200 nautical miles southwest off the coast of Portugal, on
October 16, 2021, its cargo was mostly in plain view. It would have been hard to hide, even if
they wanted; such a large load on such a vessel. 183 bales wrapped up in colorful packaging. Inside
police say, were thousands of bricks of coke with an aggregate weight of approximately 5,200 kilos
Three men on board were arrested; two Spaniards and a citizen of Peru. We'll come back to them
in a moment — particularly one of them, the presumed boss. Now this wasn't a lucky strike or random stop
by authorities. It was the end of a complex trail, a coordinated effort by law enforcement in Spain
Portugal, England, the United States and Colombia. British police say the yacht was first identified
as suspicious back in August, by analyzing maritime traffic that seems likely to be involved in
cocaine trafficking, Even so, there's been a probe underway for more than a year into the mishmash
armada of yachts stuffed with coke sailing east from South America, where cocaine is produced
The sailors had tricks of their own to help them along the way, including frequency jamming
systems to try to mask their location. Police say there were flags from several different
countries aboard the yacht, suggesting the national flag they sailed under was changed
throughout their travels. An investigator said the name of the boat itself was changed as well
The probe was codenamed Operation White Tide — that's a not so subtle reference to the flood
of white-colored bricks arriving in Europe by sea; it's regular and seemingly unstoppable just
like the tide. This interception also reveals the meteoric rise of the young man allegedly found at
the helm. Let's get to know Carlos Silla Otero. He has a more cosmopolitan background than many of
the hearty fishermen. He's the 35-year-old son of a well-known lawyer. But if that conjures an image
of a life imbued with deep respect for the law, then consider this: many of his father's clients
were narcos and smugglers and he was convicted last year of misappropriating a client's money
Silla attended a fancy school in Madrid for sommeliers, which is a fancy way to say someone
who specializes in wine tasting and wine service. It's likely he formed contacts with narcos through
his father and his father's clients. He has been named locally as the face of a new generation
of what's being called the Galician Mafia, named for the coastal region of Spain's northwest, where
they work, called Galicia. Their specialty is built around a traditional skill that is increasingly
valuable to the underworld — not violence or finance, but fishing. It's an organization built
around outlaw boaters, families that once hauled in fish but are now bringing in a far more lucrative
but riskier cargo. Galicia is an area notorious for smuggling because of its
secluded coves and curving coastline. Galician narco boaters usually work something like this:
A large ocean-going ship leaves South America with a load of cocaine hidden on board. That's
called "the mothership" and when it arrives at a specific spot in the Atlantic Ocean, the load would
be dumped and retrieved by a fishing boat or a sailboat and brought much closer to Europe's coast
This boat, in turn, would be met by what are called narcolachas — literally meaning "drug
boats." They're power boats built for speed not for comfort. You see them here. These boats, often
called go-fast boats in America, are typically powered by three or four huge outboard motors
These seafarers are expert navigators, knowing every nook and cranny of the coastal waterways
and in their narcolanchas they whisk the loads through inlets, estuaries. and rivers
to out-of-the-way spots to unload. They've become an increasingly important cog in the wheels of the
global underworld. The authorities have been on Silla's tail for more than two years. In 2019, police
raided a warehouse he owned in Ibiza convinced they'd find evidence of trafficking there. But
officers left empty-handed. In March 2020, just two weeks after the first Covid lockdown began
in Spain, police seized 3.7 tons of cocaine on a yacht headed for Galicia's shore. It was declared
the first major coke seizure of the pandemic. When those smugglers realized police were onto them, the
sailboat was scuttled, sunk along with 3.7 tons of cocaine. Police seemed certain Silla was behind
that scheme, along with Humberto Guerrero, from Peru, placing the pair at, or near, the top of the network
But despite a manhunt neither man could be found — until they were discovered last week
aboard the yacht, alongside 5.2 tons of cocaine. The presence of Silla in such an incriminating
place is perplexing. Bosses don't usually take such a risk. I think he was living on the boat
to avoid the manhunt. If he was sailing, as police say, from Europe to South America,
to Africa, back to Europe, it would keep them off the grid and out of sight for months. Aboard the
yacht the bags of bricks were in plain view, some even out on the deck, suggesting it was waiting
for the narcolanchas to arrive to collect it. Instead it was the navy and police that came
Being at the helm of this kind of load suggested Silla or the Galician Mafia has more capacity and
ambition than was thought. This was declared a world record for coke found aboard a yacht
Just a couple of days before, Spain announced a similar high seas raid
on a different yacht, 600 nautical miles off the coast of the Canary Islands, which remains Spanish
territory. This is video of the interception and search of that boat. It gives a good idea
of how the bigger seizure last week probably went down as well. 2,500 kilos of coke was found aboard
that vessel, which was flying under no national flag — which is, metaphorically, a huge red flag
and an invitation for boarding by state authorities searching for narcos or pirates
Two crew members were arrested then, a Spaniard and an Italian. There were arrests that followed on
land — three people in Malaga on Spain's picturesque Costa del Sol. In that case, Spanish police worked
with Dutch authorities and the leader of the group was said to be a Dutch citizen
We get another look at how the boats are tracked and intercepted from this seizure
last year, when Spanish and Croatian authorities captured a sailboat west of the Canary Islands
They seized a thousand kilos then. Three Croatian men were arrested
all of them linked to drug trafficking or arms dealing in the past, police said
Clearly smuggling aboard private pleasure crafts has become quite fashionable
The volume and frequency of these seizures supports the news from South America of oversupply
And a resulting imperative to get the product to market — by any means necessary
Which means such risks allegedly taken by Silla might now be acceptable. Thanks for watching
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