A VESSEL travelling from Colombia has been detained off the Scottish coast after a huge stash of cocaine was found by Border Force agents.
Police found 108kg of the class A drug, thought to be worth around $50 million USD, hidden beneath the ship 2.8 miles from North Ayrshire, Scotland.
The ship, named Cape Maria, had set sail from Puerto Nuevo on April 15, loaded with a legitimate cargo of coal.
Border Force agents, the National Crime Agency and Scottish Police, with the assistance of Dutch authorities, arrested three men, all Dutch nationals, at a nearby hotel. The men were reported to have been posing as tourists in the area but had sophisticated diving equipment, an underwater scooter and an inflatable speed boat.
Allegedly the gang had planned to dive beneath the 87,400 tonne vessel under cover of darkness to retrieve the stash of cocaine, which had been hidden in waterproof packages of the ship’s rudder.
The captain and crew are not believed to have been involved.