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 | | Thursday, 16 August, 2001, 16:33 GMT 17:33 UK Spain leads major drugs bust  Some five tonnes of cocaine were seized Police in Spain have arrested a well-known drugs baron as part of a major international anti-narcotics operation involving Spanish, American and Canadian police officers. As well as the notorious drug lord Sito Minanco, who has been linked to the Colombian Medellin cartel, Spanish police said the operation had caught 13 other people of various European and Latin-American nationalities. Two boats carrying five tonnes of cocaine thought to have come from Ecuador were also seized in international waters off the coast of French Guiana in the Caribbean. It is the latest in a series of big successes by Spanish police against drug traffickers. They have already seized more than 11 tonnes of cocaine in several operations this year. Blow to smugglers Spanish police arrested Jose Ramon Prado, better known by his alias of Sito Minanco, in the early hours of Thursday at his home in Madrid. Several others were also caught in similar dawn raids in the Spanish capital.
At least six people were caught aboard the boats. Spanish police say they were acting in conjunction with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Canadian mounted police after a dramatic raid more than 1,000 nautical miles off the coast of French Guiana. This is the third blow to the drug smuggling industry by the Spanish police in just 48 hours. More than seven tonnes of cocaine were seized in separate operations in the Basque country and on the Mediterranean coast earlier this week. Large quantities of narcotics find their way into Europe via Spain, with drugs barons making use of their linguistic and other ties with criminals in Latin America. | |
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