Polish border guards find cocaine worth $15 million on Baltic seabed

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WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish border guards discovered over 100 kg of cocaine on the bottom of the Baltic Sea while conducting operations to protect critical infrastructure, the border guard said on Tuesday.

Seven people were detained in the case involving drugs which the border guard said could reach a black market value of up to 60 million zlotys ($15 million), a border guard statement said.

Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for any incidents involving underwater critical infrastructure and NATO has said it will boost its presence in the area after several incidents in which such infrastructure has suffered suspicious damage.

The drugs were found on the seabed in the area of the Gulf of Gdansk in northern Poland, it said. Subsequently the whereabouts of the alleged perpetrators were established and led to the discovery of further significant amounts of drugs. Those detained face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, authorities said.

($1 = 3.9762 zlotys)

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Editing by William Maclean)