Pubdate: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 Source: Irish Independent (Ireland) Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd Contact: http://www.independent.ie/ Author: Jan McGirk 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart