Spain seizes 5 tons of cocaine
2009-02-27 21:39
Madrid - Spanish authorities said on Friday they had seized five tons of cocaine with a street value of over €250m from a ship in the Atlantic and detained the vessel's five Venezuelan crew members.
Customs police said they intercepted the Venezuelan-flagged Dona Fortuna in the early hours of Thursday when it was 780 nautical miles northeast of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria in Spain's Canary Islands.
The vessel was impounded and was being taken to port at Las Palmas where it, along with the drug cache and the five crew members, was due to arrive on March 5, they said in a statement.
The authorities suspect the drugs were to have been taken to Spain's northeastern Galicia region, a much-used entry point for cocaine into Europe due to the maze of coves, caves an inlets that dot its undeveloped coastline that make it a smuggler's paradise.
Customs police said they found a speedboat on Thursday with four powerful outboard motors that was loaded with gasoline and ready to head out to the high seas near the Galician village of Ria de Muros.
The seizure of the cocaine is the latest in a series of apprehension of large amounts of drugs by Spanish authorities in the Atlantic.
The last major interception took place in July when authorities seized 2.5 tons of cocaine on a boat in the Atlantic and detained the ship's five Venezuelan crew members.
Spain's proximity to North Africa, a key source of hashish, and its close ties with its former colonies in Latin America, a major cocaine producing region, have made it an important gateway for international drug dealers.