Public television in the Cape Verde Islands says U.S. authorities operating at sea have arrested a former navy chief of the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau who is suspected of being a kingpin in international drug-smuggling operations.

Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana reported late Thursday that Buba Na Tchuto and four other Guinea-Bissau nationals were apprehended aboard a yacht in international waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

It said they took the five to nearby Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony, from where Tchuto was flown to the United States.

Telephone calls to the Cape Verdean government and police rang unanswered Friday.

Kristine Marsh, a spokeswoman at the United States Embassy in Dakar, which oversees diplomatic relations with Guinea-Bissau, declined to comment, referring reporters to the U.S. Justice Department.