Drugs Raids: Police Bust International Gang
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 @ 3:15 PM
More than 30 people have been arrested in the UK as part of a major drugs operation between British and Spanish police.
Cocaine worth £10.5m headed for Britain was seized on a yacht in the Atlantic off the Spanish coast.
Officers found 250kg of the drug stashed below decks when the vessel was stopped off Vigo on the northwest tip of Spain.
The crew of two, who were sailing from the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean to the UK, were arrested.
Detectives also moved in on members of an international gang allegedly behind the smuggling attempt in a series of raids on the Costa del Sol.
A Briton was among six suspects detained on the southern Spanish holiday coast. Others held were from Spain, Colombia, the Netherlands and Italy.
Police also seized firearms and a large quantity of cash in the raids, a senior officer at the Spanish national police headquarters in Madrid said.
The raids were a collaboration codenamed Candlelight between Spanish police and Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency.
A Spanish police statement said that in the UK officers from SOCA had arrested 39 suspects and seized 500kg of cocaine, 39kg of heroin and three tonnes of cannabis.
No-one from SOCA could be contacted for comment, but in Spain the British haul is estimated to be worth more than £31m at street level.
Among premises raided on the Costa del Sol were ten homes, a restaurant on the seafront in Marbella, a cafe on the promenade at Fuengirola, and a second-hand car dealership, police said.
Seizures made by police on the holiday coast included 18 luxury cars and 300,000 euros (£255,000).
Source: Sky News