Raids across Canary Islands in major cocaine gang bust1 day ago Share Save Sean Seddon BBC News Share SaveEuropol The EU police agency Europol released footage of suspects being arrested on the Spanish islandsA major cocaine smuggling operation that used a network of speedboats to transport drugs from South America to the Canary Islands has been taken down, police have said. Almost four tonnes of cocaine trafficked from Brazil and Colombia were seized and 48 suspects arrested in raids across Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. Spain's Policia Nacional said the gang used 11 so-called narco boats to smuggle the drugs across the Atlantic in a complex operation that involved using an abandoned wreck at sea as a refuelling platform. Europol said the gang used speedboats "repeatedly, departing from strategic points in the Atlantic Ocean to a mother ship transporting the cocaine". Investigators revealed the gang used "a complex encrypted communications system to evade law enforcement, including the use of satellite terminals, hard-to-trace phones and a coded language".