French navy seizes 968 kg cocaine on sailing boat

PARIS (Reuters) - The French navy has intercepted a sailing boat carrying 968 kg of cocaine worth some 40 million euros ($59.7 million) en route to the Netherlands Antilles from Venezuela, the French government said on Friday.

French customs officers had spotted the boat off the French West Indies and put it under surveillance several weeks ago, the defence ministry said in a statement.

A Navy patrol vessel staffed by four customs officials seized the boat and its cargo on Thursday off the coast of Saint-Martin Island in the French West Indies and arrested three people, of French and Spanish nationality, the ministry said.

(Reporting by Sophie Hardach, editing by Tim Pearce)