Spain sending military planes to retrieve treasure

File - In this file photo released Feb. 1, 2009 by Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., the Odyssey Explorer's 8-ton Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) ZEUS, is seen. A U.S. judge has ruled against the deep-sea exploration company in a dispute with Spain over 17 tons of silver coins recovered from a sunken 19th century Spanish frigate it was reported Wednesday Feb.1, 2012. Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., which found the treasure off the Portuguese coast in 2007, had requested a stay after a federal court in Atlanta ruled last year the explorers must give the treasure back to the Spanish government. (AP Photo/Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc, File) NO SALES

MADRID (AP) — Spain will send hulking military transport planes to Florida to retrieve 17 tons of treasure that U.S. undersea explorers found but ultimately lost in American courts.

The Civil Guard said Monday that agents would leave within hours to take possession of the booty, worth an estimated €380 million ($504 million), and two Spanish Hercules transport planes will bring it back.

A federal judge has ordered Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration to give Spanish officials access to the silver coins and other artifacts beginning Tuesday.

Odyssey found them in a Spanish galleon in 2007 off Portugal. Spain argued successfully in court it never relinquished ownership of the ship or its contents.