Belgian police have seized cocaine on a bulker in an incident that brings together two new methods of smuggling seen in recent days.
Police raided the 61,000-dwt Ultra Daniela (built 2005) at the port of Ghent last week.
About 37 kg of drugs were found hidden in a black bag in its coal cargo when one of the holds was emptied.
The vessel had left Barranquilla, Colombia, on 20 June.
The street value is about €2.6m ($2.96m).
Six men arrested
Police said they also arrested three men who arrived at the ship in a car containing equipment "necessary to access the ship and search the coal load".
The men had helmets and even fluorescent jackets marked "North Sea Port".
Two Belgians aged 36 and 37 and a 26-year-old Albanian were arrested.
Later, raids in Albania and Antwerp discovered €1.7m in cash, a pistol and 20 kg of gold bars.
Three more suspects were arrested, including the owner of the car.
The hiding of drugs in a coal cargo echoes a raid on the 37,000-dwt bulker ES Jupiter (built 2014) in Mexico this week.
And the discovery of traffickers kitted out as port officials is the same method used by two smugglers found inside a container along with cocaine on Maersk's 9,640-teu Maersk Svendborg (built 1998) earlier this month. This incident also occurred in Mexico.
Operator Ultrabulk said it did not have any more information about the case, as the vessel is time chartered. There were no delays to its schedule, it added.
A shift in ship targets?
Boxships had been the main target of drugs gangs up until now.
But in May, German police seized 500 kg of cocaine on board a Barska Plovidba bulker in Hamburg.
The 35,000-dwt Budva (built 2014) had arrived from Brazil via Morocco when it was raided as part of a joint action between the US Drug Enforcement Administration and police from the UK, Portugal, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.
The cocaine was found hidden in what was described as a cargo area on the ship.
