As the United States intensifies its efforts against alleged drug-trafficking operations by targeting and destroying boats and their crews, European allies are also engaged in maritime battles against suspected narcotics smugglers.

“Europe is facing a significant influx of cocaine,” stated Artur Vaz, the head of Portugal’s narcotics police, in an interview with Fox News.

“Criminal networks purchase drugs in Latin America and then sell them at a high profit in European markets,” explained Vaz, who serves as the director of the National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking at Portugal’s Judiciary Police.

These drugs are transported via cargo ships, high-speed boats, and increasingly, through low-cost, semi-submersible vessels known as “narco-subs.” These vessels are designed to go largely unnoticed, with the top surface often painted in shades of steely blue and gray to blend seamlessly with the stormy Atlantic Ocean, making them difficult to detect through surveillance.

In a recently released video by the Guardia Civil, Spanish police can be seen pursuing a high-speed boat carrying individuals suspected of drug smuggling.

Portuguese authorities scored a notable capture this fall, intercepting a narco-sub in the mid-Atlantic with 1.7 metric tons of cocaine on board. But European authorities acknowledge that many others are making it past their defenses.

“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.”