POLICE IN $1BN `COKE' SEIZURE

An international police operation has resulted in the seizure of 27.5 tons
of Colombian cocaine - one of the biggest drug busts on record.

Worth about one billion dollars, the seizure was made from a port on
Venezuela's eastern Atlantic coast.

Most of the drug shipment was bound for the European black market, American
customs officials said at the weekend.

``We wiped out a sprawling organisation whose tentacles reached around the
world,'' Raymond Kelly, head of US Customs, said. ``Massive amounts of
cocaine will be kept off the street.''

The haul was the culmination of a two-year investigation `Operation
Journey' - in which a dozen countries shared information. Forty-three
people were arrested and five commercial freighters were confiscated.

Authorities said the smugglers had dispatched 68 tons of cocaine, mostly to
Britain, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Albania, Belgium, and the Netherlands.