Madrid: Spanish national police have arrested seven individuals and seized 1,100 kg of cocaine in a joint anti-drug operation, the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday. The operation, conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Portuguese Judicial Police, and French Customs, culminated in arrests as suspects unloaded cocaine in Vilanova de Arousa, a town in northwestern Spain's Pontevedra province. In addition to the drugs, authorities confiscated a 12-meter motorboat with three 450-horsepower engines, a gun, two vehicles, and communication equipment. The investigation began in November 2024, focusing on uncovering the smuggling gang's plans and transport methods. The gang used the high-powered motorboat to retrieve the cocaine from a drop-off point in the Atlantic Ocean. Police timed their raid to intercept the boat "at the exact moment it was unloading." Simultaneously, a coordinated land operation led to the arrest of three more suspects as they prepared to load and transport the cocaine using two vehicles. The Interior Ministry described the operation as "ongoing," suggesting that further arrests may follow. the team said in a statement on Tuesday.(AAP) 2 min readPublished 20 August 2013 10:40pm ShareGet SBS News daily and direct to your InboxSign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.Your email address *Morning (Mon–Fri) The final Grand Tour of the 2013 season drew to a nervy close yesterday on the streets of Madrid with Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) and Chris Horner (USA/RadioShack) both raising their arms in triumph as they crossed the line But truly the race itself had reason to celebrate as it was as fascinating as the other two Grand Tours Tight Vueltas Horner defeated Vincenzo Nibali by 37 seconds and Alejandro Valverde by 1:37 to take his first Grand Tour Compare this to Nibali’s Giro d’Italia winning gap back to runner-up Rigoberto Uran of 4:43 in May and Chris Froome’s Tour de France winning margin over Nairo Quintana of 4:20 Five of the last six Vueltas have been won by less than a minute with last edition’s gap of 1:16 from two-time champion Alberto Contador to Valverde breaking the streak The organizers have learned not to include too many stages that roll over flat featureless landscapes and to ensure that stage finishes have some kind of punch The Vuelta is no longer the “poor sister” of Grand Tours Chris Horner By becoming the first American champion of the Vuelta Horner won one for the old guys who have a weakness for junk food Horner showed that the zenith of your career can come near its end He was never one of the more vaunted Americans like Armstrong and languished for a few years in the middle of his career on American Continental teams But Horner’s early-season knee injury ended up being to his advantage he delighted every greying cyclist by clawing back time he was by far the best at going uphill and is a deserving champion Vincenzo Nibali The conventional wisdom is that Nibali lost this race unable to keep up with Horner on the steeps and without the power to crack the American on the Angliru What Nibali’s runner-up position reveals is how difficult it is for a professional stage-race cyclist to peak twice in a season took a month off and prepared for the Vuelta with a lousy showing in the Tour of Poland but a promising second place to Quintana in the Vuelta a Burgos He still came to Vilanova de Arousa a little podgy but his main problem seemed to be a lack of power Only eight riders have won two Grand Tours in a season and only three able to do the Giro-Vuelta double Nibali is a fine Grand Tour rider with two titles on his palmares but he’s not utterly dominant like Contador used to be the Shark’s multiple attacks on the Angliru showed a fine spirit and the 37 seconds reflects how close he came to achieving the 2013 double Alejandro Valverde/Joaquim Rodriguez Though Joaquim Rodriguez broke his personal streak of three consecutive Grand Tour podiums by finishing fourth Valverde’s third spot was a typical Vuelta performance from the Green Bullet third twice and has never placed lower than fifth in the Vueltas he has finished His legacy would be kind of sad if he hadn’t actually won the 2009 Spanish Grand Tour Anglophones Four of the last six Grand Tours have been won by Anglophones: Ryder Hesjedal My prediction is that we’ll never see this type of streak again What a fine Vuelta for the French as they won four stages put a man in the top 10 (Pinot) and had Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) triumph in the mountains competition This came after only six stage victories in the previous five editions with four of these by four-time mountains jersey winner David Moncoutie If only every Tour de France could be like this for the Gallic riders (to be fair the 2010 and 2012 Tours were pretty good for them) Euskatel The Basque Carrots showed up to the race a morose (but brightly clad) lot about to fold but within a couple of stages word came that the squad would be saved by F1 driver Fernando Alonso The team will continue in another incarnation Almost out of gratitude Euskatel went on to win the team competition and throw various fellows in breakaways and attacks With Rabobank changed to mossy-toned Belkin and Euskatel most likely to don a more subdued colour The Two-Day Storm Fifty-three riders from 197 starters didn’t make it to Madrid and a large percentage of those abandons climbed off their bikes on stages 14 and 15 as the weather changed dramatically from hot and sunny to miserably cold and rainy It was as if this year’s Giro had visited the Vuelta One significant abandon on stage 14 was unlucky Ivan Basso (Italy/Cannondale) going great guns and seventh coming into the day who had to leave the race with hypothermia Looking ahead to next year Contador will be back Get the digital edition of Canadian Cycling Magazine Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value"