Man killed & four injured after speedboats ‘loaded with drugs’ crash head-on during police chase near Spanish port city
A SPEEDBOAT “loaded with drugs” dramatically crashed after being chased down by cops near a Spanish port city, killing an alleged drug kingpin.
The high-speed chase kicked off near Cadiz after eight boats came into the Guadalquivir River early Sunday morning, sparking a deadly pursuit that left four others injured.
Spain’s Guardia Civil said cops on the water were supported by a helicopter above as they zeroed in on a vessel full of suspected drug traffickers.
The speedboat tried to dash off but crashed head-on into the riverbank “at full power” and flipped over, the cops said.
According to AFP, a police statement said: “The boat overturned, resulting in the death of one person, while four others were injured to varying degrees.”
Local cops added that “47 bales of hashish were left behind in the abandoned boat, with a further 74 scattered across the crash site.”
Those who survived the high-powered pursuit have been detained by police.
The extent of their injuries is not clear.
The port city is a commonly targeted entry point by traffickers hoping to inject drugs into Europe.
The deadly smash is the latest in a string of incidents where cops confront crooks in the Spanish waters.
In February, two police officers were killed when their boat was struck by a drug trafficker’s vessel during another dramatic chase in Barbate, near Cadiz.
Local media reported that Barbate’s mayor called up the cops after residents spotted six “narcos-boats” sheltering from a storm in the city’s port.
Eight people were arrested, including alleged drug dealers and money launderers.
Then in June, a patrol boat chased down another alleged narco-boat in Barbate.
A smash sent two suspected drug sailors flying out of their vessel and into the water, Spanish reports said.
They were pulled out and brought back to land but one of them suffered a cardiac arrest.
He was an unnamed Moroccan, with the other crew member believed to be a Spaniard with a record of drug trafficking.
Spanish cops regularly seize drugs in the region.
It is near the nine-mile wide Strait of Gibraltar, a small channel between Europe and Africa favoured by drug traffickers.
A France 24 report described the body of water as a “never-ending procession of speedboats loaded with hash and cocaine”.
According to the report, 280 tonnes of drugs travel through the channel every month, and 80 per cent of Europe’s hash sails through there before reaching the continent.