Spanish police announced on Saturday the seizure of 4.5 tons of cocaine off the Canary Islands aboard the Togo cargo ship from Latin America, the Orion V, which was carrying livestock to the Middle East it was monitoring. for two years, reports AFP.

Earlier, the cargo was “checked and searched”, “but no drugs were found on board, despite sufficient indications”, the police announced.

A “flying” device on Tuesday made it possible to discover cocaine hidden in a silo intended for feeding livestock, the police said.

The operation, which involved, among others, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the International Operations Center for the Analysis of Secret Maritime Narcotics Information (MAOC-N), the Togolese authorities and the Spanish police – 28 crew members of nine nationalities.

The Togolese-flagged Orion V cargo is the same size as the Togolese cargo intercepted in mid-January in the same area, 62 miles south-east of the Canary Islands – the Blume – which carried as many same found cocaine.

In total, nine tons of cocaine were seized in January, the Spanish police expressed their satisfaction in this statement.

Spain’s close ties with Latin America, where cocaine originates, make it one of the main gateways for this drug to Europe.