Picture NCA

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has helped “capture” a submarine at sea carrying six and a half tonnes of cocaine into Europe.

It’s the biggest known drugs seizure of its kind.

The cocaine is worth an estimated £530 million.

The sub had left Brazil when it was boarded in the Atlantic Ocean by Portuguese police.

The vessel was 500 nautical miles south of the Azores.

It’s the first time a drug-running semi-submersible had been intercepted in the open sea.

Five crew from Brazil, Colombia, and Spain were arrested.

They were taken to the Portuguese island of Sao Miguel.

Spain’s Civil Garda said:

“The traffickers planned to collect the drugs near the coast using high-speed vessels and smuggle them ashore.

“The transatlantic movement of semi-submersibles is increasingly frequent, with several cases in recent years.

“These types of vessels are difficult to detect and often carry a large amount of cocaine.

“The crew can easily sink them if caught, making it more difficult to recover the drugs as evidence of the crime.”

Europe is the biggest cocaine market after America.

It’s believed hundreds of homemade submarines have brought drugs to Europe over the last decades.

The latest bust – Operation Nautilus – involved the National Crime Agency, the Portuguese air force, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Lisbon-based Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – of which Britain is a part.

Luís Neves, a Portuguese police chief, said the operation had “dealt a hard blow to a very powerful organisation”.