French seize 5 tons of cocaine

PORT DE BREST, France (CNN) -- French naval forces intercepted a ship carrying five tons of cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean after shooting at the vessel to force it to stop, a senior French officer said on Friday.

"Once we found the vessel and established that it was the Winner we guided the French naval vessel to it in order to bring it to the shore," said Capt. Bertrand Massoneau, head of operations for the French Navy at Brest.

He said: "We fired across the bows, and immediately (after) we fired the captain (of the Winner) responded and followed our orders."

One of the ship's crew members was injured as the ship was being inspected.

The morning raid, involving several ships, surveillance aircraft and a naval commando unit, resulted from a long-standing cooperation among U.S., French, Greek and Spanish services, according to a government statement.

Police officials in Athens said the Winner, a 100-metre (330-foot) vessel registered to a Greek company, was carrying the cocaine from Latin America to Europe.