Spanish lottery hands out more than $3 billion

Spain's Christmas lottery, probably the world's richest, was won earlier in the week by 1,950 people with tickets bearing the number 78294. The lottery is known as 'El Gordo' which literally means 'The Fat One' and is highly anticipated event each year, being held on 22 December.

Each ticket holder will collect $430,000 in winnings and thousands of other people won smaller prizes.

Tickets with the winning number were apparently sold in a Madrid city center lottery office.

The drawing of the winning numbers by students at Madrid's Saint Ildefonso School is a nationally televised event and excitement builds dramatically across Spain in the weeks leading up to it. The lottery is now firmly entrenched as a Spanish holiday tradition.

Whilst there are other lotteries with higher individual top prizes, El Gordo is the world's richest on account of the total sum paid out which is a staggering $3.33 million. There is no single jackpot but rather a share in the top prize.

Source:onlinecasinoreports.com/

Ship with £375m cocaine cargo is seized

Police have smashed a London-based drugs gang after a ship carrying a record £375 million of cocaine was seized off the Spanish coast.

Spanish police boarded the 150ft former coastguard vessel, named Destiny Empress, yesterday after it crossed the Atlantic from the West Indies. Armed officers swooped on the boat with support from the Spanish Navy.

The raid was co-ordinated by Scotland Yard's Central Task Force with support from the Spanish police and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency. Detective Chief Inspector Peter Beyer said the cocaine haul was the biggest the Met had ever seized. He added that the drugs were destined for London and the seizure would have an effect on the price of cocaine in the coming months.

"We target the people at a higher level. We want to catch people who import the drugs in large amounts and we have made a huge dent in that," Mr Beyer said.

The gang was linked to a network stretching between London, Spain, the Caribbean and Colombia. The vessel, which had been tracked across the Atlantic from Trinidad, was carrying at least 1.5 tonnes of cocaine.

Its crew was arrested and other arrests have taken place in London.

Source:thisislondon.co.uk/