Coastguard seizes half a tonne of cocaine floating off Algeria coast

Fishermen alerted authorities to suspicious' items floating in the sea

The Algerian coastguard has seized almost half a tonne of cocaine after fishers alerted authorities to suspicious" items floating off the north-west coast.

The coastguard fished out 490kg (1,080 pounds) of cocaine split up into 442 packages from the water six nautical miles (11 kilometres) off Oran's Cap Carbon on Saturday evening, a defence ministry statement said on Monday.