City link to Ibiza drugs haul

Oct 7 2005 By Ben Hurst, Birmingham Mail

TWO Birmingham men have been arrested in a major £11 million drugs bust near the Mediterranean party island of Ibiza.

In a dramatic operation, Spanish customs officers boarded a British-registered fishing vessel, the Quiet Waters, and overpowered the crew before carrying out a search.

Police say they found a 125 bales of hashish weighing a total of 3.7 tonnes and worth £11.1 million on the black market. It is the biggest haul seized off Ibiza for 17 years.

The operation took place between Ibiza and the smaller island of Formentera just before midnight on Tuesday. Police said four Britons and a Moroccan were arrested after the 59ft Quiet Waters was boarded by Spanish customs officers.

They were handed over to the national police when the Customs patrol vessel arrived in Ibiza.

They named the Britons being detained as Earl Edwin Bridge, aged 45, and Wayne Robert Bridge, 44, both from Birmingham; James Alexander Cootes, 22, from Brecon, south Wales, and Andrew William John Coventry, 41, from Manchester.

Jose Manuel Bar, Spain's director of state administration for the Balearic Islands, said the drugs had been brought from North Africa and were on their way to the European market.

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