Trawler's Cocaine Haul Destroyed

Spanish police yesterday began destroying 7.5 tonnes of cocaine discovered on a Senegalese trawler intercepted off Portugal as experts warned Europe was in danger of being flooded with the drug after an increase in production in South America.

Spain, one of the main points of entry for cocaine in Europe, has already beaten its previous record of 32 tonnes discovered in one year and has, with the capture of the trawler South Sea, reached 38 tonnes so far this year.

Spain's police chief, José Garcia Losada, warned that the fall of the big Colombian cartels had led to increased production by much smaller cartels trying to get into the highly lucrative global cocaine trade.

"In other times production was monopolised by powerful organisations that maintained strict discipline and did not allow any competition," he told El Pais yesterday.

Spanish police said five different networks of production, distribution and money-laundering had been involved with the shipment. They announced the arrest of 31 people, including Carlos Somoza, former son-in-law of one of Spain's biggest drugs barons, Manuel Charlin.

The drug would have been distributed around Europe, where it would have a street value of up to £300m.

The South Sea was yesterday being inspected in the port at Vilagarcia, in the north-western Spanish region of Galicia, which has a reputation as Europe's main cocaine-smuggling area.

Local anti-trafficking campaigners complained that some five tonnes of cocaine a month continued to reach Galicia before being shipped to the rest of the country and Europe.