MADRID – A fishing boat carrying 5,000 kilos (11,000 pounds) of cocaine was seized by Spanish authorities in the Atlantic Ocean some 800 nautical miles from the Canary Islands, officials said on Friday.

They said the capture of the 16-meter (52-foot) Doña Fortuna took place Thursday when customs agents on the navy patrol boat Centinela boarded the Venezuelan-flagged fishing vessel.

Inside the boat they found more than 180 bundles of Colombian cocaine of between 25 and 30 kilos (between 55 and 66 pounds) each. The drugs have an estimated street value of around 250 million euros ($317.5 million).

The Venezuelan government said Thursday in a communique that it had authorized the Spanish navy to search the boat.

The vessel taken into custody, together with the drug and the five suspects arrested, should reach on March 5 the port of Las Palmas on Grand Canary island in the Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa.

The Spanish police, suspecting that the destination of the drug shipment on the Doña Fortuna could have been the coast of the northwestern province of Galicia, began monitoring Galician ports on Tuesday.

On Thursday in that region it managed to intercept a speedboat full of gasoline that was about to head for the high seas, possibly to receive the goods aboard the Doña Fortuna. EFE