As the United States intensifies its offensive against suspected drug-trafficking vessels, launching attacks that result in the destruction of boats and the deaths of their crews, European allies are similarly engaged in their own maritime battles against narcotics traffickers.
Artur Vaz, who heads Portugal’s narcotics police, highlighted the gravity of the situation, stating, “Europe is literally being flooded with cocaine,” in an interview with Fox News.
Vaz, the director of Portugal’s National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, explained that criminal networks acquire cocaine in Latin America and capitalize on substantial profit margins by distributing it across European markets.
The trafficking methods are varied, with drugs being transported via cargo ships, high-speed boats, and increasingly through semi-submersible vessels known as “narco-subs.” These stealthy crafts travel mostly submerged, with only the upper part visible, often camouflaged in shades of blue and gray to blend with the Atlantic’s stormy waves, making detection by surveillance teams challenging.
In a striking visual, Spanish authorities were seen pursuing a high-speed boat carrying suspected drug smugglers, as captured in footage released by the Guardia Civil.
This autumn, Portuguese forces successfully intercepted a narco-sub in the mid-Atlantic loaded with 1.7 metric tons of cocaine. However, European officials concede that many similar vessels evade capture, slipping through their defensive nets despite ongoing efforts.
“The interdiction rates for these subs is between 10%, roughly, and maybe as low as 5%,” said Sam Woolston, a Honduras-based investigative journalist specializing in organized crime.
“Even if one or two get nabbed by the authorities, it’s not enough to dissuade them.”
European authorities mostly choose to intercept narco boats, stopping far short of the Trump administration’s policy of destroying them. Instead, the often low-rung crews are detained for interrogation, in the hope of shedding light on shady drug kingpins, gang operations and distribution networks.
Officials tell Fox News, though, that they would like to do more.
“We must be more muscular — that is, with greater means and a greater capacity for intervention,” said Vaz. “But, of course, within the rule of law.”
As for the narco-subs, those vessels aren’t new, but they never used to cross oceans.
“It’s mind-boggling, the level of sophistication,” Derek Maltz, a former acting chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told Fox News.
Portuguese police inspect the scene after capturing a narco-sub in March 2025, authorities said. (Policia Judiciaria.)
“But it’s all about the money, and it’s all about the risk, and right now I don’t think these networks perceive Europe as a huge risk for them.”
Journalist Woolston says the transatlantic voyage is typically crewed by “desperate people,” given its perilous nature.
“You’ll be locked up in a very small compartment for days, usually inhaling things like diesel fumes. There have been cases of narco submarines found with a crew of dead bodies.
“The kingpins would not get on these boats.”
