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Police have broken up a worldwide drug trafficking ring arresting 50 suspects following a year-long investigation after a EUR-45-million haul of cocaine was seized in the Caribbean.

Justice officials say police in the UK, Spain, Poland and Norway headed by US DEA officers have staged dozens of arrests since police confiscated the haul from a luxury yacht in 2023.

Europol video footage emerged in Spanish media on 19th July showing how customs officials in the Caribbean seized sports bags with 1.6 tonnes of cocaine from the yacht.

Officers around the world were able to use data captured from traffickers' phones and devices to trace where the shipment had come from and who it was going to.

Later footage shows a series of raids by Spanish police on 24th June this year where 26 suspects were arrested.

The clip shows police searching multiple addresses and confiscating wads of 50 EURO banknotes, guns, ammunition and notebooks, believed to contain drug shipment records.

Two dozen further arrests were made in the UK, Norway, Bulgaria, Colombia, Panama, Portugal and Trinidad and Tobago, reports US media.

The network's mastermind, identified only by his nickname 'The Professor', was seized in Norway and is described by police as a "high value" target.

Despite the sophisticated global trafficking network, reports US media, each shipment was blessed by a witch doctor to guarantee its safe arrival.

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