KEY POINTS:
MADRID - Spanish police said today they had seized at least four tonnes of cocaine on a ship near the Strait of Gibraltar, while Portugal seized 1.5 tonnes of the drug in a related operation near the island of Madeira.
Spanish police said they boarded the merchant ship Challenger in the Alboran Sea between Spain and Morocco on Tuesday and have been searching the ship in the southern port of Almeria.
Police said up to now they had uncovered four tonnes of cocaine in plastic packets hidden in water tanks and the ship's engine room, adding that the search was continuing.
They said the drugs bust was linked to Portugal's seizure of an estimated 1.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a Spanish yacht near the mid-Atlantic Portuguese islands of Madeira.
Portuguese police arrested three Greek men on board, who are thought to belong to an international drug ring based in Spain. Their Spanish counterparts arrested seven crewmembers: five Greeks, and two Italians.
Spanish state radio earlier reported the Challenger may have been carrying up to 15 tonnes of cocaine.
Portuguese police spokeswoman Fernanda Ines said the 20-metre long yacht boarded near Madeira had been under surveillance by authorities since November 2006, adding it had carried out several drug smuggling operations from Madeira to mainland Portugal and Spain.
"More arrests are expected in coming days," she said.
- REUTERS
