Irish police seize yacht with cocaine worth more than £500m

by Dave Keating | November 7, 2008 at 05:08 am

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A yacht from Ireland was siezed this morning in a raid, and 700 million euros worth of cocain was found on board. The capture follows an investigation which was launched after one of the yachts in the smuggling ring overturned off the coast of Cork and dumped 62 bales of high-grade drugs into the sea, which then washed up on shore.

A luxury yacht packed with cocaine worth more than half a billion pounds was towed ashore under armed guard today after it was seized off the Irish coast.

Gale force winds and seven-metre-high waves had hampered the capture of the yacht, Dances With Waves, but this morning it was anchored in an isolated part of the small fishing port of Castletownbere, in County Cork.

A section of the harbour was sealed off as customs and police officers began stripping down the vessel.

Police would also begin questioning three men – two Britons and one man originally from Dublin - who were arrested and brought ashore last night after armed authorities stormed the 60ft cruiser in international waters 150 miles off south-west Cork.

The trio, aged between 44 and 52, had been at sea for more than a month.