Authorities seizes 280 kg of cocaine from Brazilian fishing boat

April 19, 2016 6:06 AM

The bust happened when the fishing vessel ran out of fuel and the yacht arrived carrying 450 litres of fuel, apparently to restock the fishing vessel and transfer the drugs, a senior police official said.

Cape Verde seizes 280 kg of cocaine from Brazilian fishing boat

Authorities in Cape Verde have seized 280 kilograms of cocaine in a bust in the Atlantic from a Brazil-registered fishing vessel as it prepared to transfer the drugs to a U.S.-flagged yacht, the Cape Verde judiciary police and coast guard said on Monday.

They arrested four Brazilians, one Cape Verdean and a Russian and have since conducted searches in the capital Praia and in Assomada, on Santiago island, seizing weapons, ammunition, satellite phones and around $50,000.

Cape Verde, an Atlantic archipelago of 500,000 people, is the West African nation that has shown the most determination tackling gangs smuggling Latin American cocaine to Europe via the region.

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