Cocaine and a corpse found on yacht in Tonga

Published on 17/11/2012 00:00

AUSTRALIAN police say a corpse and 200 kilograms of cocaine were found on a yacht that ran aground in the small Pacific island nation of Tonga.

Australian Federal Police said yesterday that they received a tip from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in August that a boat carrying the drugs had left Ecuador and was headed to Australia.

Officials from the US, Australia and the Pacific islands worked together to track down the boat across the vast expanse of the South Pacific.

They eventually found the yacht shipwrecked on a remote island in Tonga. Police say the drugs stuffed in the hull were worth around AUS$116 million (about £75m).

A man’s decomposed body was also found on board. Tonga’s coroner is investigating the cause of death.