Rust-bucket ‘burner’ ship reveals another way narcos smuggle cocaine into Spain
RUSTING against the dock in Santa Cruz de Tenerife sits the United S, a vessel that looks like it belongs in the scrapyard.
Instead, it finds itself at the centre of a multi-million-euro criminal investigation.
The aging cargo ship has been the subject of intense police scrutiny since elite Spanish police officers stormed its deck to find a record-breaking 10 tonnes of cocaine hidden in its hold.
While police dismantle the mountain of salt used to hide the drugs, an Olive Press examination of the United S’s history reveals the fingerprints of the perfect narco-transport.
Built in 1991, the United S fits the classic profile of a ‘burner’ ship – a disposable asset used by cartels for one-way trips where the risk of seizure is priced in.
At 35 years old, the vessel is well past its commercial prime.
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It flies the flag of Tanzania, a jurisdiction currently on the ‘Grey List’ of the Paris MoU on Port State Control, often used by operators looking to avoid stringent safety inspections.
Its ownership is equally opaque.
The vessel was acquired in 2023 by Rania Marine Co, a shell company registered in the Marshall Islands. However, operationally, it is managed by Rania Shipping Ltd, an entity based in Turkey.
This setup allows the true ‘beneficial owner’ – the person actually pulling the strings – to remain anonymous, shielding the cartel bosses even if the crew is caught.
The ship’s movements prior to the raid also followed a suspicious pattern.
After loading its cargo in Brazil and crossing the Atlantic, the United S did not declare a specific European port as its final stop.
Instead, maritime tracking data listed its destination simply as ‘For Order’.
This is a common tactic in maritime smuggling, implying the captain was waiting for last-minute instructions to either offload the drugs to smaller ‘narco speed boats’ that currently infest Spanish seas or divert to a port where security might be lax.
READ MORE: Raids on Costa del Sol topple cocaine gang shipping drugs to the UK
The fact that all 13 crew members were arrested indicates that investigators don’t buy any claims of ignorance or being unwitting smugglers.
Furthermore, shortly after the Policia Nacional GEO team secured the bridge 535km from the Canary Islands, the ship ran out of fuel.
It was left drifting helplessly for 12 hours before it had to be towed into Tenerife on Sunday afternoon by maritime rescue services.
This is yet another red flag – in the world of legitimate shipping, running out of fuel in open water is virtually unheard of.
It would be a catastrophic failure of planning that would end a captain’s career.
But for the United S, this was likely a calculated risk that backfired.
Security experts speculate that the fuel shortage means the vessel was acting as a ‘mother ship’.
Rather than heading directly to a port, these vessels often loiter in international waters for days or weeks, waiting for smaller ‘go-fast’ boats to ferry the drugs to the Spanish coast in batches.
This ‘station keeping’ burns through fuel reserves.
The fact the United S ran dry suggests its logistics chain collapsed: either the pick-up boats were delayed, or an illegal sea-bunkering (refuelling) rendezvous failed to materialise.
Given the ship’s advanced age and low value, it is highly probable the cartel planned to scuttle or abandon the vessel once the 10 tonnes of cocaine had been offloaded, treating the ship itself as little more than disposable packaging.
But recent Atlantic storms, including the tail end of Storm Goretti, would have generated significant swells off the coast of West Africa and the Canaries in recent days.
These rough sea conditions likely would have made a ship-to-ship transfer to small ‘go-fast’ boats impossible, forcing the United S to hold its position and burn through its final fuel reserves while waiting for a calm window that never opened.
Instead, the empty fuel tank left them sitting ducks for the Spanish police, turning a 35-year-old rust bucket into the scene of Spain’s biggest ever high-seas bust.
Now under police guard, the United S has likely made its final voyage, having unwittingly delivered the largest high-seas cocaine haul in the history of the Policia Nacional.
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