Britons held in £225m drugs raid

Cocaine was seized in Las Palmas

Three Britons are among 12 people arrested after a vessel carrying five tonnes of cocaine was stopped off the coast of Spain.

The haul, one of the biggest ever seized, is thought to be worth at least £225m on the street.

The drugs were found when the boat reached Las Palmas in the Canary Islands at the weekend.

On Friday, Timothy Kieran O'Toole, Ian Stephen Davenport and James Carabini were arrested on the Costa del Sol.

Joint operation

The vessel was tracked across the Atlantic from Latin America in a joint operation by police and customs in Spain, Portugal and the UK.

It is thought the drugs were bound for all three countries.

When the boat stopped in the Canaries last week, armed Spanish Customs officers stormed the boat, arrested the crew and seized the cargo.

Then police in mainland Spain mounted a series of raids across the country holding alleged members of a Spanish drugs clan and Colombians.