An Irishman and two Brazilians were arrested after French customs officers made one of their biggest cocaine hauls in 10 years today, seizing about 1.2 tonnes of the drug aboard a yacht off the Brittany coast.
Customs officers boarded and searched the vessel and later towed it into Brest harbour, where a police team from the regional capital Rennes began investigating.
The yacht had lost its mast and the country of registration of the vessel, described by police as a cargo ship, was not immediately known.
A customs officer, speaking under condition of anonymity, said the yacht was called Dynamique Dand had been boarded off the small island of Ouessant, off the northern coast of France.
Residents there contacted by telephone said the three crew members landed on the island yesterday, and speaking English, said they came from New Zealand via Portugal.
The crew said they had lost their mast during a storm, had run out of diesel and had not eaten for three days.
The yacht, around 15 metres long was moored in Brest's commercial port this evening alongside a customs cutter.
Port workers said it had arrived overnight and that a number of boxes had been unloaded from it.
Customs officers took photographs on board but were tight lipped when asked where the drugs were headed or where the yacht had come from.
AFP