Spanish police blamed their British counterparts yesterday for being unable to find up to ten tons of cocaine reported to be on board a cargo vessel seized in what was billed as the biggest ever single drugs bust in Europe.

The Spanish drugs officers who led last Thursday's spectacular high-seas raid on the Panamanian-registered Privilege cargo vessel admitted that they had still not found a trace of the cocaine.

They have now reportedly been joined in Las Palmas, the Canary Isles port, by the undercover British drugs officers who tipped them off that the Privilege had picked up drugs in the mouth of Venezuela's Orinoco river.

The Spanish officers said that British police were responsible for tracking the vessel by satellite during its voyage.

Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service yesterday declined to comment.

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Spanish police have been giving details of a massive drugs seizure made as a result of a raid on a cargo ship in the Atlantic.

They are still searching the vessel but expect to recover several tonnes of cocaine.

Explaining the operation, the Spanish Government's anti-drugs supremo Gonzalo Robles said: "We are talking of a major consignment, probably over five tonnes.

"We believe the search of the ship will be slow and prolonged, not just because of the size of the vessel and the amount of cargo it carries, but also because of the way the drug is hidden."

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International donors pledged $621 million on Friday to help fund Colombia's multibillion-dollar project to combat cocaine production and revitalize the country's economy.

Colombia is trying to gather $3.5 billion from foreign donors to add to its own contribution of $4 billion to the project, which includes plans to beef up military action against the drug trade, protected by Colombia's powerful rebel movement.

The pledges from the one-day conference, which gathered 27 nations and several international agencies in Madrid, Spain, ``forms the first contribution from the international community to the peace process'', said Enrique Iglesias, head of the Inter-American Development Bank, which is presiding over the Colombia Plan.

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In Madrid on Friday, European Commission officials and EU ministers will discuss their response to "Plan Colombia", an ambitious programme, backed by both Washington and Colombia's President Pastrana, which aims to eradicate the country's twin plagues of drugs and violence writes Ana Carrigan

COLOMBIA: Its critics fear, however, the plan may have the reverse effect. The EU is being asked to contribute $1 billion towards pacification projects. Last week, the US Senate voted through $1.3 billion in military aid for the counternarcotics side of the programme.

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One in eight of the half-million young tourists going to Ibiza this summer will take Ecstasy nearly every night of their stay, according to new research.

It also found that more than a quarter have unprotected sex and a quarter have sex with more than one partner during their trip.

The study is the first evidence of the extent of drug use on the Spanish island, which was dubbed the "Gomorrah of Europe" after the British vice-consul resigned two years ago in disgust at the behaviour of its British visitors.

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The decision mandates alternative treatment, even for repeat offenders with felony convictions.

If a drug addict agrees to detoxification in a treatment center, the judges should revoke the prison sentence for the crime committed and facilitate rehabilitation. And it does not matter if the penalty is over two years in prison or if the offender is a repeat offender. The Supreme Court's groundbreaking decision is based on the understanding that drug addicts suffer from an illness. The decision establishes that crimes committed by drug addicts should be dealt with via safety measures (residency in a treatment center) that lead to social reintegration.

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Chemicals in cannabis have destroyed brain tumours in laboratory rats, a new study found.

Researchers at Complutense University in Spanish capital Madrid induced tumours in 45 rats.

They treated a third with THC, the main active chemical in cannabis, and a third with a synthetic cannabinoid while using a third as a control group. The untreated rats died within 18 days while one third of those which received THC and the man-made cannabinoid had their tumours destroyed and the remaining third had their lives prolonged by up to six weeks.

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CANNABIS could be a cure for brain cancer, according to research results out today.

Experiments on rats have shown that the main chemical in the illegal drug can sometimes wipe out the deadly tumours.

Other rats with the cancer had their lives extended by more than a month.

MSPs are already calling for a review on using cannabis for medical treatments and the findings will bring more pressure on the Government.

Thousands of patients with brain cancer will be given new hope by the research.

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NEW YORK (AP) - Marijuana-like drugs eradicated some brain cancers in rats and helped other animals live longer, according to a study published in the March issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

The study dealt with gliomas, the most common category of cancer arising in the brain. Gliomas are highly lethal in people despite treatment with drugs, surgery and radiation.

Scientists at the Complutense and Autonoma universities in Madrid, Spain, injected glioma cells into the brains of rats to produce tumors. Untreated rats died within 18 days.

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The center, known as a drug hall, will provide clean needles and cubicles, in which addicts may inject or smoke their own drugs, the president of the Madrid regional government Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon announced Thursday.

``Our aim is to help heroin users by giving them hygienic conditions and to prevent the spread of contagious diseases,'' said the director of the Spanish anti-drug agency, Jose Cabrera.

The center should be open by the end of February receiving 150 visits a day, Gallardon said.

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British gangsters are turning over more than pounds 90 million a year supplying Ibiza's club drug market, The Observer can reveal.

With 450,000 British tourists visiting the island each year, the market for Ecstasy - the most popular drug in the dozens of all-night rave clubs - is alone worth more than pounds40m. When sales of cocaine, amphetamines, cannabis and LSD are added to the equation, the figure more than doubles.

Characters such as the Professor and Big M supply and distribute the drugs alongside better known names including the Adams family, the notorious north London criminal clan. The gangsters are virtually a law unto themselves and local police admit they can do little to stop the booming trade.

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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.

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MADRID - Spain has pulled off Europe's biggest cocaine haul, seizing an estimated 10 tons aboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean and smashing two local gangs linked to Colombian cartels, police said Wednesday.

Together with more than 200 kilograms of heroin and another 97 kilograms of cocaine seized in a separate raid the drugs would have an estimated street value of around $1 billion.

Police and customs officials backed up by the Spanish navy raided the ship 1,000 miles southwest of the Canary Islands Sunday night as it approached Spanish waters from Panama, police officials said.

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MADRID, July 7 (Reuters) - Spanish police have seized ten tonnes of cocaine in what is believed to be the largest ever haul in Europe, national radio reported on Wednesday.

Customs police carried out the swoop off the Canary Islands, intercepting a boat carrying the mammoth consignment after several months of investigations.

Media reports said two drug barons believed to be from Colombia had been arrested but police officials were not immediately available to comment.

Spain's national radio added the police operation was still under way and could lead to further arrests.



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A CREW of Russians and Belorussians arrested by Spanish police on a ship carrying 10 tons of cocaine are to be brought to Madrid today for questioning by Judge Baltasar Garzon, whose investigations have produced Europe's biggest drug haul.

Judge Garzon's inquiries have been going on for several months and are seen as a further triumph for the man who earned the nickname "Superjudge" for his daring pursuit of Galician drug-smuggling clans in the 1980s. More recently he asked Britain to extraditeChile's former dictator General Pinochet.

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Spanish police were yesterday holding 55 men after a dramatic mid-Atlantic raid on a St Vincent and Grenadines-registered trawler in which they discovered some 10 tons of pure cocaine en route for the European markets.

The operation, codenamed "Operation Temple", is the culmination of many months of investigation involving anti-drug police in several countries and the tracking of the trawler Tammsaare across the Atlantic after it was first spotted near Panama on June 18th until the boarding operation some 900 miles from the Canary Islands. Police have not revealed the port of origin of the trawler, although they suspect that the cargo originated in Colombia.

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The Spanish Ministry of Health approved dispensation of levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol (LAAM) to opioid addicts as a therapeutic alternative to methadone on March 30.

This decision comes after encouraging results from a 3-month pilot study by the National Commission of Agonists (NCA) in 224 opioid addicts from 13 autonomous communities.

NCA president, Guillermo Guigou said "LAAM offers some clear advantages over methadone", namely: "higher comfort levels since patients have to go to the dispensing centres only two or three times a week and not on a daily basis; fewer physical withdrawal symptoms; fewer desires for consuming opioids; and a lack of significant side effects."

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BARCELONA, March 3 (Reuters) - Police seized 890 kilos (1,960 lbs) of heroin and arrested 10 members of an international drugs ring importing heroin from Turkey to Spain, Spanish state radio said on Wednesday.

Police swooped on the gang as they were preparing to bring the heroin into Spain hidden in boxes of towels to be imported by a clothing company. Most of the heroin was confiscated before leaving Turkey.

"The volume of the drugs seized... and the number of people arrested gives an idea of the importance of the organisation that we have uncovered," Julio Fernandez, head of the Barcelona police drugs unit, said on the radio.

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