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Two tonnes of cocaine seized off Devon coast

Six arrested in £160 million drugs bust

More than two tonnes of cocaine worth around £160 million has been seized in a dramatic operation off the Devon coast.

Six men aged between 24 and 49 are now in custody on suspicion of drugs trafficking.  Only one is British. He's from Stockton on Tees, County Durham, who was arrested alongside five Nicaraguans on Thursday evening 80 miles off Plymouth in an operation led by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and supported by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Border Force.

The suspects were aboard the Kahu – a luxury Jamaican-flagged yacht sailing from the Caribbean. It was escorted back to the UK mainland where a team carried out a deep rummage search and discovered the enormous haul of Class A drugs.

Matt Horne, deputy director of the National Crime Agency said: “There’s no doubt these drugs would have been sold on into communities across the UK....fuelling more crime and misery.

“Organised crime groups are motivated by money. The deprivation of these drugs will smash a hole in the OCG’s [organised crime group] plans and ability to operate.

“Also, the arrests of the men transporting the drugs means the crime group has lost trusted offenders who would have been key to their operation."

The Kahu cutter (courtesy: National Crime Agency)

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