Spanish police dismantled an illegal banking network known as the "narcobank," arresting 21 people across Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the Netherlands and Sweden and uncovering assets worth €20 million ($23.2 million). Authorities said the network served some of Europe’s biggest cocaine traffickers by financing shipments, moving money internationally outside the formal banking system, using cryptocurrency to settle transactions and providing money-laundering services. Twelve suspects remain at large. The investigation began after authorities seized 1.84 metric tons of cocaine aboard the vessel Nehir in 2021; police said the vessel was later deliberately sunk at the northern Spanish port of Gijon to conceal a further 1.65-ton shipment.