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Madrid - Spanish and Moroccan police netted close to four tons of cocaine with a street value of over €100m and arrested 40 people in a long-term anti-trafficking operation, Spain's interior ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said that 1.3 tons of the drug with a street value of over €13m had been seized in Spain since the launch of the joint operation last year.
Four tons of cocaine
Morocco's DGST domestic intelligence service meanwhile said it had seized 2.6 tons of cocaine in the joint operation, which had input from US, Italian and German law enforcement agencies.
Madrid said the operation had "dismantled a major criminal organisation based in Spain and Morocco, directed from Venezuela by a wanted Spanish national".
In all, 34 men and six women of Spanish, British and Moroccan nationalities were arrested as part of the operation.
One Spanish national was detained in Germany "while trying to flee to Venezuela", the ministry said.
It added that the amount of cocaine seized could have been sold in Spain for "more than Madrid - Spanish and Moroccan police netted close to four tons of cocaine with a street value of over €103m.
Intercepted a boat
Spain is a main entry point for cocaine in Europe and the busts are some of the biggest in recent years.
Spanish authorities said in May that they had intercepted a boat carrying 2.4 tons of cocaine in the Atlantic.
And three tons of the drug were seized in the northern region of Galicia and Spain's Mediterranean Costa del Sol in December 2015.
