Fishermen alerted authorities to ‘suspicious’ items floating in the sea The Algerian coastguard has seized almost half a tonne of cocaine after fishermen alerted authorities to ‘suspicious’ items floating off the north-west coast. Photograph: Dumitru Gornet/Alamy The Algerian coastguard has seized almost half a tonne of cocaine after fishermen alerted authorities to ‘suspicious’ items floating off the north-west coast. Photograph: Dumitru Gornet/Alamy AgenceFrance-Presse Mon 28 Jun 2021 20.03 EDT 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.