Agency seizes 75 tonnes of drugs

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The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said the haul, most of which was intercepted at sea, represents a fifth of Europe's entire annual supply.

Officers working on the other side of the Atlantic are partly responsible for the success, which targets vulnerable transport networks, the agency said.

They use tip-offs from many sources, including officials in the United States, to trace drugs back to their sources in Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil and the Caribbean.

A new anti-smuggling centre in Portugal is expected to help intercept even more drugs destined for Western Europe in the future, while officers working in Afghanistan identified 80 key people responsible for the production and supply of heroin.

Officers also recovered 1.5 tonnes of heroin, 4.4 million Ecstasy tablets, 260 kilos of opium and one million doses of LSD.

Sir Stephen Lander, the agency's chair, said the Royal Navy plays a key role in tackling drugs trafficking by sea. He said: "This has a lot of potential to damage the trade because there is a water bridge between production of the product and its sale in Europe. We are trying to disrupt that."

Anti-drug officers are now turning their attention to new supply routes emerging from Kenya, West Africa, Russia and Turkey.

The agency, created by the merger of several crime-fighting agencies, published its first annual report, revealing that 35 people are still alive today after officers worked with police to block potential murder plots.

And a target list of 1,600 of Britain's worst criminals has been drawn up, with 160 of those made a priority to be brought to justice.