Portuguese police have intercepted a submarine with nearly seven tonnes of cocaine on board in an operation involving Britain’s National Crime Agency. The vessel was crossing the Atlantic from South America and heading for the Iberian Peninsula when it was intercepted around 500 miles south of the Azores.

Three Brazilians, a Colombian and a Spanish national who were on board have been arrested. In a statement released today, Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria (PJ) police said: “In a concerted action between the Portuguese and Spanish authorities, the PJ carried out an operation in recent days to combat drug trafficking by sea, following which it was possible to locate and intercept a semi-submersible used by a transnational criminal organisation which was carrying around 6.5 tonnes of cocaine bound for the Iberian Peninsula. The ‘Nautilus’ operation, in which the Portuguese Navy and Air Force, the Spanish Guardia Civil, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the UK National Crime Agency took part in addition to the PJ, originated from information shared by the Guardia Civil at the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre - Narcotics (MAOC-N), based in Lisbon, and is being developed in an investigation led by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action.

“The vessel, which was intercepted in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, around 500 nautical miles south of the Azores, was carrying five crew members along with around seven tonnes of drugs, which were destined for various countries on the European continent. The investigation, carried out by the PJ's National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, is continuing in co-operation with the authorities of other countries."

Drug trafficking organisations are increasingly using narco subs, which are called submarines because they move underwater with only the very top part above the surface, to smuggle cocaine into Spain from South America.

The first vessel of its type that made the full crossing was discovered in the Aldan Estuary in Galicia in November 2019. 

It had crossed the Atlantic from Colombia laden with more than three tonnes of cocaine after being built in the Brazilian jungle.

Three crew members, two Ecuadorians and a Spanish former boxer, were arrested and subsequently jailed.

The sub was moved from the Galician port of Vigo to a police museum in the city of Avila a 75-minute drive north-west of Madrid in February 2021.

The following month, Spanish police seized the first-ever narco submarine made in Europe.

Detectives say the 30ft-long vessel would have been capable of carrying two tonnes of drugs at a time.

It was discovered in a warehouse at an undisclosed location in the province of Malaga near to the Costa del Sol.

Police sources revealed at the time it was nearly finished and was going to be used to transport cannabis resin across the Gibraltar Strait between Morocco and Spain.

In January another narco sub was discovered, abandoned and empty after the cocaine on board was offloaded, off Galicia’s so-called Coast of Death.

It broke into two as salvage workers tried to bring it to shore.

Local reports in Galicia say the vessel that has just been intercepted was heading to the port city of Sines south of Lisbon.