Portugeuse police seize eight tons of cocaine

Police seized about eight tons of cocaine in an operation in southern Portugal today in what was the country’s largest ever drug haul.

Police also arrested seven Spaniards who allegedly belonged to an international smuggling ring during co-ordinated dawn raids in the Algarve coastal region.

The cocaine was in 336 bales stored in a warehouse near the town of Silves, about 120 miles south of Lisbon. The haul had an estimated street value of nearly £200m (€290m), officials said.