By IANS
Algeciras (Spain) : Spanish patrol boats have seized the US treasure-hunting vessel Odyssey in the Bay of Algeciras, members of the environmental group Ecologists in Action told the Spanish news agency EFE.
The group reported that the ship of Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration – embroiled in a legal battle with Madrid over salvaged treasure – sailed from the port of Gibraltar and was intercepted shortly after entering Spanish territorial waters.
The US company announced in May that it had recovered more than $500 million in gold and silver coins and other valuables from a colonial-era shipwreck.
The order to seize the ship was handed down by a Spanish court carrying out an investigation to determine whether the company is guilty of plundering Spanish patrimony.
In September, James Goold, the attorney representing the Spanish government, told EFE that evidence that the treasure found by Odyssey Marine Exploration last May came from a Spanish-flag vessel is “very strong”.
The Spanish government has filed a complaint with a court in Tampa, Florida, asking the judge to “reject all lawsuits presented by Odyssey last Aug 6 with regard to the shipwrecked vessel called the Black Swan”.
Goold said that “the formal request” presented persists even though the court rejects Odyssey’s claims “against Spain” and finds that the company “has no legal right” to the archaeological site.
The Spanish culture minister believes the most likely hypothesis is that the cargo was taken from the remains of a Spanish-flag vessel found in international waters.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, in a document presented last August, asked for compensation from the Spanish government for losses that it says it suffered for “obstructions to its operations”.