Spanish police seized a record 50 tonnes of cocaine last year and arrested nearly 2,000 people for drug trafficking, the government said on Sunday, according to Reuters. Spain, with its long coastline, has for years been viewed as an important entry point for Latin American cocaine to Europe. The country ranks third behind Colombia and the United States in the amount of cocaine it seizes, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Spanish police also confiscated more than 646 tonnes of hashish in 2005, the third highest annual total on record. The ministry statement confirmed figures reported recently by newspaper El Pais which said that Spanish cocaine seizures in 2005 accounted for almost 60 percent of the European total. It said 50 tonnes of cocaine was equivalent to 464 million doses with a street value of 6 billion euros ($7.31 billion).
