Yacht seized with two tonnes of cocaine

UK authorities have seized over two tonnes of cocaine in a raid on a luxury yacht off the coast of southern England, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said yesterday.British authorities said they arrested six people on Thursday evening after discovering the drugs with an estimated street value of £160mn ($221mn) on a Jamaican-flagged yacht sailing from the Caribbean.One British man was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking along with five Nicaraguans.The NCA released photographs of the drugs stored in black waterproof bags in the lounge of the docked Kahu yacht.“There’s no doubt these drugs would have been sold on into communities across the UK,” said NCA deputy director Matt Horne.The seizure “will smash a hole in the OCG’s (organised criminal gang’s) plans and ability to operate”, he said.The NCA said it intercepted the yacht when it was 80 miles (130km) off the coast of the port of Plymouth after receiving evidence gleaned from a sting operation by the Australian Federal Police, who participated in the raid.This summer the Australian police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed they had carried out a sensational operation persuading criminal networks to use supposedly encrypted phones called ANOM that were in fact copying messages to the law enforcement authorities.Below: This handout photograph released by the UK National Crime Agency shows blocks of cocaine, after being unloaded from black waterproof bags, that were stacked in the lounge of the luxury yacht Kahu.