Portuguese police have seized nearly 6.5 tonnes of cocaine from a semi-submersible “narco-submarine” intercepted about 500 nautical miles south of the Azores, Portugal’s judicial police said on Tuesday.

The vessel was intercepted “in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, around 500 nautical miles (more than 900 kilometers)” south of Portugal’s Azores archipelago, the judicial police statement said.

Operated by an international crime ring with five crew members on board, the semi-submersible was crossing the Atlantic from South America and heading for the Iberian Peninsula when it was intercepted.

This bust, a significant victory in the fight against transnational drug trafficking, represents nearly a quarter of all cocaine seized in Portugal in 2024. Most cocaine entering Portugal is trafficked by sea from Latin America,

Besides the Portuguese navy and airforce, international partners including the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the British National Crime Agency and the Spanish Guardia Civil contributed to the bust, according the police.

Most of the cocaine smuggled into Portugal, often considered one of the first points of entry for the drug into Europe, comes across the sea from Latin America.

Drug traffickers have been caught using semi-submersible vessels, sometimes dubbed “narco-submarines”, to smuggle cocaine while attempting to evade detection.

PAJ/Staff