DRUG RING SMASHED, POLICE CLAIM

MADRID, SPAIN -- Spanish police said on Monday they had arrested 17 people
over the weekend after a two-year investigation into a drug ring that
smuggled hashish from Morocco to Europe.

The latest arrests brought the total number of people detained in the
operation to 95, a police statement said. More than 54 tons of hashish had
been seized over two years.

"The organization, the biggest of its kind in Spain, has been totally
dismantled," the statement said. "Among those arrested were those in charge
of the operation and various foreigners," it added.

The investigation, started in Alicante in 1997, uncovered a network which
transported the drugs from Morocco to the southeastern Spanish coast via a
fleet of more than 60 boats, civil guard director general Santiago Lopez said.

The boats also transported illegal immigrants, Lopez added.

Spanish state television reported that one of two men in charge of the gang
was British, though the police did not specify the nationalities of those
arrested.

Earlier this month, Spanish police seized 15 tons of cocaine in an operation
authorities touted as the biggest haul of the drug ever in Europe.