Six arrested after £300m of cocaine is found on yacht

Six suspected members of an international drugs gang have been arrested after Customs seized cocaine with a street value of about £300 million.

The men were held in dawn raids in Holland yesterday following the discovery of 1.2 tons of the drug on a £1 million yacht in Southampton in June.

Officials from the UK Border Agency and Serious Organised Crime Agency said it was the biggest haul of class A drugs ever found in the UK.

The 90 per cent pure cocaine was found in a specially built compartment under a bathing platform after a six-day search of the 65ft yacht Louise. It had been tracked on a cargo ship from the Caribbean after suspicions were raised with the French authorities.

It is understood the cocaine was packed inside the vessel while it was in Venezuela on its way to Holland.

Dutch police arrested two 44-year-olds in Amsterdam, a 60-year-old in Meppel, two men aged 32 and 34 in Heusden, and a 27-year-old in Waalwijk. A total of 100,000, two Harley Davidson motorbikes, two guns, a silencer and some ecstasy were seized.