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4 Canadians, ton of cocaine seizedBy Al Goodman YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSMADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish Civil Guards have arrested four Canadians and seized one ton of cocaine they allegedly had aboard a private yacht near Barcelona, according to officials. The raids came at the end of a five-month investigation that also involved U.S. and Canadian police, the Interior Ministry said Monday in a statement. One of the Canadians, a 55-year-old man identified only by his initials M.M., was "one of the most important drug traffickers in Canada," the ministry said. Civil Guards seized the cocaine and made the arrests last Thursday (October 6), but only made the information public on Monday. No reason was given for the delay. The yacht and the cocaine were seized in the port of Cambrils, in Tarragona province just south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast. The investigation began last May, involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Canada's Royal Mounted Police, focusing on attempts to introduce cocaine from the Caribbean to the European Union, the Ministry said. Last August, authorities determined that Spain was the destination for the cocaine shipment, and asked for Spanish police assistance. Early this month, investigators, who dubbed the case "Ice Cream," determined that the alleged head of the group would come to Spain to oversee the sale of the cocaine and the subsequent money laundering. After the arrests, two homes were searched, in Rosas and Cambrils, near Barcelona, and police said they found evidence that the same group was operating in Spain, Holland, France, Britain and Ireland, as well as in Canada and the United States. The other Canadians arrested were identified, only by their initials, as R.P.D., age 59; A.G., age 59, and R.D., age 37. A Civil Guard spokesman told CNN on Monday the Spanish investigating magistrate had not authorized the release of the full names. The spokesman said the four suspects had been transferred from the Barcelona area to Madrid, but a spokeswoman at the National Court, which handles cases of drug trafficking, told CNN that she had not been informed of arraignments for any of them. The Canadian Embassy in Madrid did not immediately respond to a phone call for information. 
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