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Four tonnes of cocaine with a street value of more than £100,000,000 have been seized by the Colombian military from a submarine thought to have been bound for Central America.

Officers intercepted the million-dollar vessel, said to be capable of transporting at least five tonnes of drugs, in the Pacific Ocean around 70 miles from the Nariño port city of Tumaco on Sunday.

Footage of the huge bust – the navy’s biggest in two years – shows one of the officers pointing a gun into the submarine after pulling open the hatch.

They arrested four men, including an Ecuadoran wanted in the United States on drug trafficking charges.

The man, identified only as Jorge PB, is subject to an extradition request from an unnamed US district court.

He and three Colombian nationals were turned over to the Attorney General’s Office.

They are charged with the trafficking, manufacture or carrying of narcotics, as well as the use, construction, commercialisation and possession of semi-submersibles or submersibles.

The shipment, with an estimated street value of $145,000,000, was split into 4,000 plastic bundles that were wrapped and placed in 200 large bags.

According to the military, the drugs belonged to a dissident group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) known as the Alfonso Cano Western Bloc.

Colombia launched a new strategy to fight drug trafficking earlier this month.

It is aimed at controlling cyberspace to tackle criminal groups involved in the cocaine trade, as well as block their financial transactions, Defence Minister Diego Molano said.

The ‘Esmeralda’ initiative, unveiled in the city of Cartagena, will see support from 36 countries including the United States, Colombia’s main ally in the war on drugs.

Mr Molano said: ‘We hope to develop new and innovative tactics in the coming years in the fight against the global scourge of drugs.’

Crime-fighting agencies around the world will increase their cyber presence, including with undercover agents, to tackle the growing distribution of drugs online, he added.

Artificial intelligence will also be used to monitor the selling and trafficking of chemical ingredients used in drug making, to protect legal sales but prevent use in narcotics.

Colombia is considered the world’s top cocaine producer.

Illegal armed groups including leftist guerrillas and criminal gangs descended from right-wing paramilitaries are deeply involved in production and trafficking.

The South American country cut the size of coca crops, cocaine’s chief ingredient, by 7% in 2020, but potential production rose 8% to 1,228 tonnes a year, according to the United Nations.

Colombian authorities seized a record 672 tonnes of cocaine last year.

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