US Coast Guard seizes ship with 3.5 tonnes cocaine

Aug 06, 2010 |

IANS

A Honduran-flagged ship carrying 3.5 tonnes of cocaine was seized and five of its occupants were arrested by the US Coast Guard off the Honduran coast.

The vessel was intercepted on Tuesday off the eastern Honduran province of Gracias a Dios, on the border with Nicaragua, in a joint operation with local authorities, Honduran Security Secretariat spokesman, Mr Leonel Sauceda, said.

Five Hondurans were arrested in the operation, Mr Sauceda said, adding that the suspects may be tried in either Honduras or the US.

The seizure was the biggest in the past six years in the Central American country, Sauceda said.

Honduras is used as a transit point by South American drug traffickers. More than 2.2 tonnes of cocaine had been seized in the region so far this year, officials said.

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