Madrid - Spanish police and navy Thursday intercepted a ship belonging to the US shipwreck recovery company Odyssey Marine Exploration, which Madrid accuses of stealing a treasure of silver coins from a Spanish shipwreck.
Police said the MS Ocean Alert was intercepted about 6 kilometres south of Gibraltar on the order of a court in nearby La Linea de la Concepcion.
Police ordered the captain to dock in the port of Algeciras so the vessel could be searched on charges of a possible offence against Spain's historic heritage.
The court had ordered the interception of two Odyssey vessels moored in the British enclave of Gibraltar as soon as they entered Spanish waters.
Odyssey said in May it had recovered more than 500,000 silver coins, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold and other artifacts from a shipwreck in the Atlantic and taken them to the United States.
The Florida-based company describes the treasure as the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a historical shipwreck site. Its worth is estimated at 370 million euros (500 million dollars).
Odyssey says the treasure was beyond the territorial waters and jurisdiction of any country.
The Spanish government says its research also indicates that the wreck was in international waters, but that it was Spanish and that Spain therefore owns the treasure.
The identity of the wreck and the site where it was discovered are not clear. Spanish media have reproduced satellite images indicating that Odyssey was operating near Spanish waters.
Madrid has taken legal action against Odyssey at a Florida court, and cancelled the permission it had given the company to search for another shipwreck, that of the 17th-century British warship Sussex, in Spanish waters.
Odyssey says that even if the treasure were Spanish, the company would be entitled to 90 per cent of it as a reward for rescuing it.
Madrid fears that Odyssey will sell the treasure before Spain's legal claim is settled.
Spanish waters are littered with shipwrecks, and Spain is wary of treasure-hunters who could loot them for commercial purposes.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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