World

Spanish customs seize huge cocaine haul

by mudricky | February 28, 2009 at 01:29 am

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The Spanish custom officials have taken a boat carrying five tonnes of cocaine near the Canary Islands.

Officials boarded the Dona Fortuna about 780 nautical miles (1,444 km) north-east of the islands on Thursday and discovered the boat's cargo with a street value of £221m.

The boat seized was a Venezuelan fishing boat.

The US has said the amount of cocaine trafficked by Venezuelan cartels had jumped fivefold between 2002 and 2007.

A Venezuelan fishing boat has been seized near the Canary Islands with five tonnes of cocaine on board, Spanish customs officials have said.

The drug shipment is thought to have a street value of 250m euros (£221m). Five Venezuelan crew members were held.

Officials boarded the Dona Fortuna about 780 nautical miles (1,444 km) north-east of the islands on Thursday.

Spanish police also impounded a speedboat on the country's north coast on suspicion it was involved.

Drugs report

The high-speed boat, which was loaded with gasoline, was intercepted near a village on the sparsely-populated coast of Galicia, a favoured entry point for cocaine smugglers bringing the drug into Europe.

Customs officials believed the boat was about to rendezvous with the Dona Fortuna.