Spanish police have arrested a group of cocaine traffickers on a boat from South America in the Atlantic after one of them fatally shot another smuggler and took others hostage, the interior ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The case took place in November, but until the end of the investigation was kept under the regime of judicial secrecy, the ministry said.

After a conflict between the boat’s crew members, a Serbian citizen took control of the Sea Paradise, shot dead one of the other smugglers, threw his body overboard and took the other eight crew members hostage, the ministry said in a statement.

Alerted to a shipment of approximately 2.3 tons of cocaine from Latin America that was to be transferred to a smaller vessel near the Canary Islands, Spanish police launched a drug seizure operation that discovered hostages being taken.

A police team arrived on board the Sea Paradise at an undisclosed location in the Atlantic and spent hours negotiating with the man who had taken his fellow smugglers hostage.

He eventually gave up his weapons and freed the others “who feared for their lives,” Spain said in a statement.

Then all the people on board were arrested, and the consignment of cocaine was confiscated.