Guardia Civil officers have seized 127 kilos of cocaine found in a storeroom of the navy training ship Juan Sebastian de Elcano.
The discovery of the drugs stash follows the arrest of three sailors after the boat returned to Spain last month. Drug traffickers apparently contracted the sailors to transport the drugs when the ship stopped in Cartegena de Indias.
The drugs, seized on Saturday in Cadiz, were hidden in the ship’s reserve sails.
Police were alerted to the drugs after the US authorities arrested two Colombians suspected of obtaining 20 kilos of cocaine from the sailors during a visit to New York in May. The Juan Sebastian de Elcano, had just completed a six-month tour and covered 18,000 nautical miles when the cocaine was discovered.