International police operation seizes cocaine worth $232 million from yacht in Atlantic ocean

Portuguese police said the seizure was the largest in Europe in recent years and the biggest in Portugal for 15 years.

An international police operation has nabbed cocaine with a street value of around 200 million euros ($232 million) on a yacht in the Atlantic Ocean, authorities said Monday.

Three men were arrested and taken to Portugal. (Representational image)

Portuguese police said the seizure was the largest in Europe in recent years and the biggest in Portugal for 15 years.

Police localized and intercepted a 24-meter (79-foot) yacht at sea, a statement said. They boarded it and found 183 bales of cocaine on board.

Police suspect the cocaine belonged to an international drug-trafficking gang that was bringing cocaine into Europe through the Iberian peninsula.

Three men were arrested and taken to Portugal.

The operation involved police from Portugal, Spain, the Drug Enforcement Agency in the United States and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency.

Authorities said they would release further details of the operation later Monday.