PORTUGUESE OFFICIALS have seized 800 kilos of pure cocaine with a street value estimated at 16 million euros.
The drugs were found on a luxury yacht sailing towards the north of Portugal.
The Lady Mary, which left the Azores to sail to Grenada in the Caribbean, was boarded by five Portuguese naval officials about 290 kilometres off the coast of Portugal.
Four Canadians, three men and one woman, aged between 30 and 68, were arrested and escorted to the port in Aveiro.
The four have since been questioned by the authorities and are currently being detained. Police suspect that they are part of a large criminal drug network originating from South America, and that the Lady Mary met with another vessel to transfer the cocaine onto the yacht.
“The cocaine is probably from South America and was destined to either the north of Portugal or Galicia in Spain,” said the spokesman.
