Cocaine Seized: Yacht Carrying 1.1 Tons Of Drugs Intercepted By French Authorities

BERLIN -- German police say authorities have intercepted a yacht carrying 1.1 tons of cocaine worth some euro42 million ($60 million) from the Caribbean to Europe.

Police said Tuesday that the bust was part of an investigation begun in 2009 with French and Spanish authorities.

Two Germans sailing from the island of Grenada were stopped last week by French customs authorities. The cocaine was found hidden in the 43-foot (13-meter) yacht, and the suspects were arrested.

In searches in Germany, police say they found euro400,000 ($580,000) cash and euro900,000 ($1.3 million) in other assets.

Police say a South African man who was supposed to skipper the boat across the Atlantic was arrested Tuesday in the Caribbean. A Dutch man was arrested Tuesday in Spain.

Comments

[dbrett480]

02:25 PM on 07/09/2011

Good bust, although for every ton intercepted another 9 go through.

[Bushido08]

07:13 PM on 07/06/2011

Note to 43-foot (13-meter) yacht Owner...when you take on 1.1 tons of anything the amount of freeboard will be significantly reduced making it pretty darn obvious that you are either sinking or maybe trafficing in drugs!! Dummy!

[Wuggly Ump]

09:24 PM on 07/05/2011

Apparently certain sectors of the world economy are doing well.

[mikeemo1]

09:18 PM on 07/05/2011

i say legalise cocaine and give it away for free and let the drugies snort and shoot up all they want they will drop dead and drug problem solved

[oldfort1]

08:09 PM on 07/05/2011

A cryin' shayme that organized criminals cain't make a decent buck any more.

[paulw3tzi]

07:03 PM on 07/05/2011

USCG Ensign in an AP file photo. Two American vessels. More media lies.

[openmindedma]

06:52 PM on 07/05/2011

To bad they found it.... Better luck next time

[fanetiks]

07:00 PM on 07/05/2011

You advocate trafficking in hard drugs, do you? You need to be executed, along with all other drug pushers.

[theslowforward]

07:28 PM on 07/05/2011

Wow. You need to calm down and look at all the money wasted on America's FAILED drug war, then check into the propaghanda that out there concerning some drugs, THEN you should smoke some weed and shut up. Respectively.

[Bruce Erickson]

08:05 PM on 07/05/2011

If that is the case then you had better line up Bush Sr. and his helpper Oliver North and a bunch of C.I.A. folks as they were also caught bringing drugs into the U.S. with the help of the C.I.A. and using the profits from the sale of the drugs here in the U.S. to supply arms to those that we are now fighting in Afganistan. Don't forget Bush Sr. was the head of the C.I.A. when this drug pipeline started. Then again they were Republicans and thus above the law.

[paulw3tzi]

05:42 PM on 07/05/2011

Supply and demand at work. If there was no worldwide demand the supply would dry up.

[fanetiks]

07:00 PM on 07/05/2011

And if little old ladies would just stay home, they wouldn't get mugged -- altho they might suffer home invasion. People just have no right to be weak, right?

[vaygollybum]

05:39 PM on 07/05/2011

That doesn't look 40 foot long?!?!? Or else the people are giants.

[captpeterw]

06:05 PM on 07/05/2011

Yes it does. It's a Beneteau 430.

[vaygollybum]

07:24 PM on 07/05/2011

Thanks. I guess looks can be deceptive. As you can tell I don't know a lot about boats.

[flyingfortresb17]

05:38 PM on 07/05/2011

Seize the boat and take the traffickers out to sea and dispose of them as Seal Team Six disposed of Osama Bin Laden. Summary justice.

[fanetiks]

07:01 PM on 07/05/2011

Try them first. Then kill them. And don't pollute the ocean. Cremate them and use the ashes as fertilizer, so they will finally do some good.

[mbobmcc]

05:15 PM on 07/05/2011

Throw the key away on these low lifes.

[bjvela60]

05:08 PM on 07/05/2011

Who can afford the price of the cocaine, get the money men not the fools moving the junk.

[fanetiks]

07:03 PM on 07/05/2011

They had nearly $1.9M on hand. They ARE the money men.

[Alex Chapman]

05:07 PM on 07/05/2011

If they were stopped by French custom authorities, why is there a U. S. Coast Guard ensign (flag) in the picture? Just wondering... from a retired U. S. Coastguardsman. I would like to think the Coast Guard had something (maybe a lot) to do with the interdiction.

[mbobmcc]

05:23 PM on 07/05/2011

Sorry, but I don't think that is a U.S. coast Guard ensign.

[porsche996]

05:25 PM on 07/05/2011

stock photos used all the time by HP they rarely pay the UP or Reuters prices for something they can fake....easy take down,,,nothing that would require the coastie pros.

[xthomasx]

04:38 PM on 07/05/2011

They would have been traveling much faster but there was so much cocaine on the boat that no matter how hard they tried their mainsail just wouldn't go up.

[fanetiks]

07:04 PM on 07/05/2011

There is nothing funny about hard drugs.

[theslowforward]

07:23 PM on 07/05/2011

That's odd becuase everything becomes much more hillarious on hard drugs.

[xthomasx]

07:33 PM on 07/05/2011

Why don't you turn off your computer now and go find yourself a sense of humor .

[xthomasx]

04:34 PM on 07/05/2011

Reports say they were wide awake through the entire trip Each one took turns looking out the windows to see if there was a boat following them.

[cedy]

04:41 PM on 07/06/2011

Yea, that's about it. I think you are correct, but I would add in, they are all probably looking out the windows.