MAOC-N recently supported Operation AZUL 2.0, a multinational law enforcement operation led by the Portuguese Judicial Police (Polícia Judiciária), with the participation of FRONTEX and EUROPOL, which resulted in the dismantling of a significant cocaine trafficking route operating across the Atlantic Ocean.
Conducted between 27 May and 15 June 2026, Operation AZUL 2.0 was launched in response to evolving trafficking patterns identified by MAOC-N and its partner countries, which highlighted the growing use of sophisticated, multi-stage maritime smuggling methods by organised criminal organisations to move cocaine from Latin America to Europe. Operational assets and efforts focused on the Eastern Atlantic corridor between the Canary Islands as well as the Portuguese archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores.
The operation was led and coordinated by the Portuguese Judicial Police, in close cooperation with law enforcement authorities from Spain, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Throughout the operation, MAOC-N supported the collection, fusion and analysis of intelligence, while FRONTEX provided aerial surveillance capabilities.
The operation resulted in the seizure of 465 kilograms of cocaine and 42 kilograms of hashish, as well as two high-speed vessels and approximately 800 litres of fuel used to support the trafficking activities.
The results of Operation AZUL 2.0 demonstrate that intelligence-led maritime operations, combined with coordinated interventions at sea, remain essential to disrupting increasingly sophisticated trafficking models. MAOC-N, together with its member countries and international partners on both sides of the Atlantic, continues committed to playing a central role in this effort by coordinating intelligence and operational information towards the disruption of organised criminal networks operating across the Atlantic.
Press release: https://www.policiajudiciaria.pt/operacao-azul-2-0-pj-lidera-operacao-internacional-que-desmantelou-rede-de-trafico-de-cocaina/
