The Treasury will have the operations center against drug trafficking in the western Mediterranean in the Balearic Islands

PalmaThe Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency has chosen the Balearic Islands as an operations center to reinforce surveillance in the western Mediterranean. The decision is part of the incorporation of new patrol boats and a reorganization of maritime resources with the goal of improving the coverage of surveillance zones, expanding preventive actions, and reducing response times for objectives of special interest.

As reported by the organization itself in a statement, the new device is based on a triangulation system that divides maritime surveillance into three large areas. The Balearic Islands will assume control of the western Mediterranean, while the Canary Islands will concentrate preventive actions on Atlantic routes and the Macaronesia archipelago area. The third strategic point will be Galicia, where Customs Surveillance highlights that criminal organizations have the capacity to carry out transshipments at a great distance from the coast and under complex conditions.

The reorganization aims to optimize fleet resources and reinforce active control of commercial maritime traffic, as well as operations against drug trafficking and other illicit activities linked to smuggling.

A fleet of large patrol boats

The new operational distribution coincides with the incorporation of new vessels of large dimensions and autonomy. In the Canary Islands, the patrol boat Torgo II has been incorporated, which will be based at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, considered a strategic point to act early on Atlantic routes and cover wide maritime zones.

The vessel has a length of over 38 meters, a maximum speed of 30 knots, capacity for a crew of up to 18 people, and an autonomy of over 1,500 nautical miles. These characteristics will allow it to intervene in operations to combat drug trafficking and other illicit activities at sea.

The Torgo II will join four large-dimension and long-range vessels already possessed by the Customs Surveillance Service, among which is its twin vessel, the Torgo I, also recently incorporated and which will have its docking point at the port of Brens, in Cee (A Coruña).

The fleet is completed with the patrol boat Cóndor, which will depart from Mallorca to monitor the Mediterranean area, and the special operations vessels Petrel I and Fulmar, with usual bases in Vigo and Cadiz, respectively.

With this deployment, Customs Surveillance aims to distribute available resources among the main maritime corridors and improve the capacity for intervention against criminal activities that take place at sea.