A Spanish warship seized a US treasure-hunting vessel Madrid suspects of taking gold and silver worth millions of dollars from a sunken Spanish galleon today, the US crew said.
The Spanish Navy corvette blocked the path of the Odyssey Explorerafter it left Gibraltar, a British colony on the southern tip of Spain, and threatened to open fire when the captain refused to let police board.
The warship then escorted the boat, which belongs to US company Odyssey Marine Exploration, to the Spanish port Algeciras so police could carry out a search.
"They threatened that we must obey or they would use deadly force," Ali Nessar, a company representative on the boat, said.
"We were forced at gunpoint to come to Algeciras."
Guardia Civil police officers boarded the vessel once it docked in Algeciras, then escorted sailors off the vessel one by one. Police allowed two engineers to stay on board but seized cameras and mobile phone chips, Mr Nessar said.
Police officials were not available to comment on the raid.
In a statement from its US headquarters, Odyssey Marine said it was waiting for word from the Spanish judge who ordered the search about results of the inspection.