A former chief of the navy in Guinea-Bissau have appeared in a U.S. court on charges linked to cocaine trafficking, officials have said, according to BBC News.

Rear Adm Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto was flown to New York after he was detained while travelling on a yacht in the east Atlantic.

Adm Na Tchuto is described by the U.S. as a kingpin in Guinea-Bissau's huge drugs trade.

The small West African state is a staging post for drug-smuggling gangs. Cocaine is smuggled to Guinea-Bissau from Latin America before finding its way to Europe as well as the U.S.

The indictment against Adm Na Tchuto and two other defendants states they were middlemen in a huge drug-smuggling operation originating in Latin America. It alleges they "worked together to receive ton-quantities of cocaine, transported by vessel from South America to Guinea-Bissau, and then to store the cocaine in Guinea-Bissau before its shipment to other locations, including the United States".

Public television in the Cape Verde Islands reported that Adm Na Tchuto and four other Guinea-Bissau nationals were taken into custody aboard a yacht in international waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

They were arrested by U.S. federal drug agents, a law enforcement official said. The boat they were travelling on was reportedly displaying a Panama flag.

The five were then taken to nearby Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony about 1,000km (620 miles) west of Guinea-Bissau, the TV station reported.

They were then flown on to the United States. They appeared briefly at the U.S. district court in Manhattan on Friday, April 5 and all five were ordered to be held in custody without bail.