by seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:37 pm
<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-09-05-cocaine-seized_x.htm?csp=24" target="top">www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-09-05-cocaine-seized_x.htm?csp=24</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>"Dutch seize tons of cocaine in Rotterdam port<br>AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Authorities seized 5 tons of cocaine hidden in reels of steel cable in the Port of Rotterdam last month in what prosecutors described Monday as one of the country's biggest drug busts. <br>The seizure was the largest in the Netherlands in terms of value, with an estimated street worth of $275 million. It was kept secret until Monday while arrests were prepared.<br><br>Eleven men and two women of six nationalities were arrested after the seizure on Aug. 3 — most of them last weekend. A 45-year-old Colombian suspect died after falling from an apartment window in Amsterdam, prosecutors said in a statement. <br><br>Prosecutors said the man died while trying to escape during a police raid, but national investigators have launched an independent inquiry into his death. <br><br>Police in Spain and Belgium have made an undisclosed number of additional arrests in the case, Dutch prosecutors said. <br><br>The 13 suspects were from the Netherlands, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Greece and the United States, and their ages ranged from 15 to 50, prosecutors said. <br><br>Additional arrests were possible, they said. <br><br>The cocaine was concealed within reels of steel cable 12 feet high and 6 feet wide. <br><br>The drugs were divided between two shipping containers recorded as having been sent from Venezuela and bound for Iraq via Belgium. The cocaine was unloaded in Rotterdam. "<br><br><br><br>Bound for Iraq? <p></p><i></i>