Divers used by Yardies to smuggle drugs to UK

Jamaican 'Yardie' gangs are using divers to smuggle drugs worth millions of pounds into Britain, it has been revealed.

They fix cannabis-filled containers to the hulls of ships that make regular transatlantic trips between the Caribbean and the UK.

The drugs are then collected after the vessels have docked in Britain.

The warning comes after the body of Joseph Campbell, 35, was discovered in Jamaica's Kingston harbour on Tuesday.

Police say he had been trying to attach a box containing £5million-worth of cannabis to the hull of a ship when he was killed by its propeller.

Customs officers are now using a special underwater scanning machine to search all ships leaving Kingston for the UK and U.S..

The machine, funded by British customs and the FBI, has already found £100million-worth of drugs attached to 12 ships in three months.

Police superintendent Marlon Dietrich said: "It's a nonstop battle.

"There are powerful gangs with lots of money behind this and many divers see it as an easy way to make money fast."