AUSTRALIAN POLICE SNARE MAJOR COCAINE SHIPMENT

SYDNEY, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Australian police on Tuesday charged three men
and a woman for the country's largest cocaine importation, worth A$50
million (US$31 million).

Police seized the 225 kg (496 pounds) of cocaine from a yacht off the
mid-east coast town of Coffs Harbour on Monday.

On Tuesday, Robert Flavel, 28, of the United States; Beatriz Suarez, 38, of
Spain; Gregory Meggett, 28, of South Africa and Australian Jose Vaquere,
34, appeared in the Coffs Harbour Local Court charged with importing cocaine.

Vaquere was also charged with money laundering.

Police said more than A$6.0 million, alleged proceeds from cocaine sales,
had been transferred out of Australia by the group.

Police told the court that the group used the 18-metre (59 feet) yacht
Maeva Chiqui to smuggle the cocaine from South America, via Panama to the
Marquesas Islands and Tonga in the South Pacific, then on to Australia's
mid-east coast.

The cocaine was allegedly found in the hull of a small boat attached to the
deck of the yacht.

The four were remanded to reappear in the Coffs Harbour court next Monday.
No pleas were entered.

(A$1US$0.61)

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski