The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency is tightening up patrols in the Balearics. | Photo: Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter
Humphrey CarterPalma19/10/2026 13:11
The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency has chosen the Balearics as the location for its operations centre to monitor the Western Mediterranean. The decision has been taken in the context of the introduction of new patrol vessels and aims to make the most of the fleet, expand coverage in preventive operations and reduce response times when dealing with specific targets.
The service stated in a press release that a triangulation system based on surveillance zones has been established to strengthen active control of commercial traffic, with a hub in the Canary Islands to carry out early interventions on Atlantic routes and in the Macaronesia archipelagos; another in Galicia, where the organisations based there have the capacity to carry out transfers at great distances from the coast under complex conditions; and a third in the Balearics for the surveillance of the Western Mediterranean.
In the Canary Islands, the patrol vessel ‘Torgo II’ has been commissioned; it will be based in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a strategic berthing point for early intervention on Atlantic routes and for covering extensive maritime surveillance areas.
With a length of over 38 metres, a top speed of 30 knots, a crew of up to 18 and a range of over 1,500 nautical miles, the ‘Torgo II’ will offer great versatility in naval operations to combat drug trafficking and other illicit smuggling activities in maritime areas.
It will add its capabilities to those of the other four large, long-range vessels in the SVA’s fleet: the sister vessel ‘Torgo I’, also a new addition, which will be based at the port of Brens in Cee (A Coruña); the patrol vessel ‘Cóndor’, which will operate from Mallorca to patrol the Mediterranean; and the special operations vessels ‘Petrel I’ and ‘Fulmar’, normally based in Vigo and Cádiz.