EUROPEAN POLICE BUST COCAINE ‘SUPER CARTEL’

A drug “super cartel” that controlled about a third of Europe’s cocaine supply has been dismantled, police have announced.

Dubbed Operation Desert Light, 49 people were arrested across six European countries, the EU’s police agency, Europol, said.

They included a British national, who is suspected of heading the operation.

Those arrested included six “high-value targets” – those most wanted by international police.

Europol said the “drugpins” had formed a “prolific criminal network involved in large-scale drugs trafficking and money laundering.”

It added that the scale of the drug operation was “massive”.

It is the latest in a series of police efforts to hack encrypted phones used by organised crime networks to traffic drugs and launder money.

Cocaine imported from South America via the Netherlands was the main focus of the investigation, and most of the arrests were made there in 2021.