Spain to Invest Millions in New Tech to Stop Sea Traffickers

SPAIN’S INTERIOR MINISTRY has assigned €5.3 million to be spent on new technology to stop drug and human traffickers on the Meditteranean and Atlantic.

The multi-million investment will be used to procure 12 new high-tech optronic sensors, which will be able to detect boats at a range of 22km and automatically track moving targets. The Guardia Civil’s boat detection technology is in need of a “refresher” to “increase its capacity in terms of detection range, image resolution, and automatic target tracking” said the Ministry.

Five of the expensive new devices will be assigned to the Canary Islands, which has seen a huge influx of human trafficking in 2020. Other sensors and further investments will be assigned across Spain’s coastline, including to stations in Malaga, Cadiz, Almeria, and Mallorca.

From January to November this year Guardia Civil detected over 2000 suspicious vessels on Spain’s seas. Trafficking gangs use small, camouflaged boats to ferry drugs and migrants into Europe through Spain, particularly in the Meditteranean. Much of the continent’s illegal drugs come through Andalusia, with a spike in narco-trafficking recorded around the Strait of Gibraltar in recent times.

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