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Cocaine haul in mid-Atlantic

LONDON May 9. British and Spanish customs officers seized 3.6 tonnes of cocaine — one of their biggest ever drugs hauls — when they raided a boat in the middle of the Atlantic yesterday.

A spokeswoman for British Customs and Excise said the drugs had a street value of more than £250 millions ($400 million) and had been packed aboard a Honduran-registered former World War II torpedo boat. Officers arrested the boat's captain from the Dominican Republic and its seven crew members who were all Greek. They were being questioned by Spanish authorities.

``It's a huge haul, one of our largest ever,'' the spokeswoman told Reuters. ``We believe the drugs were destined for the Iberian peninsula and had come from Colombia.''

Britain's Press Association news agency cited one source as saying there was so much cocaine on board that the crew were forced to sleep on the boat's bridge because their bunk beds were packed with drugs.

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