Fishing boat taken from Agadir found drifting with 12 Moroccans near Lanzarote

Spanish maritime rescuers towed a fishing vessel presumed stolen from Agadir to Lanzarote after it broke down with 12 Moroccan men aboard about 100 kilometres from the Canary Island, Spanish authorities and local media reported.

The occupants contacted the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Las Palmas shortly after 2 a.m. on Sunday, saying the vessel had suffered an engine failure and was drifting at sea.

The centre asked ships travelling through the area to help locate the boat. The ferry Ciudad de Valencia found it and remained nearby until the Spanish rescue vessel Salvamar Al Nair arrived at about 9 a.m.

Spanish authorities said Morocco reported that it had no rescue assets available to intervene, prompting the operation from Lanzarote.

The fishing boat was initially reported to be carrying 11 people. Authorities revised the figure to 12 after the vessel reached port early on Monday. All were adult Moroccan men.

Bad weather slowed the towing operation, which continued for about 14 hours. The vessel was eventually taken to the port of Los Mármoles in Arrecife at around 2 a.m., after plans to dock elsewhere were changed.

The Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium described the fishing vessel as having been stolen in Agadir. Spanish maritime rescue officials, however, limited their statement to the circumstances of the rescue and did not explain how the boat left the Moroccan port.

The available official and Spanish reporting does not establish that the men forcibly seized the vessel from its crew. It also does not confirm claims that the boat left without notifying Agadir port authorities or that its vessel-monitoring system failed to trigger an intervention.

Spanish police were expected to process the incident as a case of irregular migration while investigating the circumstances surrounding the vessel.

Local media said it could be the third fishing boat taken from a Moroccan port and used to reach Lanzarote within roughly a year. A vessel carrying 14 people arrived in June 2025, while another carrying five Moroccan men ran aground and caught fire near Órzola in September.