Britons are among nine suspects questioned after 1.3 tons of cocaine was found in luggage on a flight from Caracas to Paris.

Three Britons have been arrested over the smuggling of 1.3 tons of cocaine in the luggage of an Air France flight.

French police found the drugs on a flight from Venezuela's capital Caracas to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

The cocaine, said to have a street value of some £175m (€200m), was found packed into 30 suitcases carried on a flight that left Venezuela on September 10.

The huge find was only made public on Sunday.

The UK's Foreign Office has confirmed that three unnamed Britons are being held in France.


Some of the drugs were destined for Britain
They are among a total of nine suspects detained so far. Three Italians and three Venezuelan police officers are also in custody, according to Venezuelan prosecutors.

British police from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) have been involved in the investigation along with officers from Spain and Holland.

A source from Soca told Sky News that some of the drug haul was expected to have ended up on British streets. Soca said the operation is not being linked to recent high-profile smuggling arrests involving Britons.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said it was the biggest find of its type in metropolitan France.

French police commander Mohamed Douhane said: "Such a seizure, in such circumstances, is quite simply exceptional."

None of the suitcases were apparently registered to any passengers. It is not clear how the stash would have been collected.

Air France said it was still trying to find out how the drugs made it onto the plane.

The airline said "immediate" steps were being taken to improve checks on baggage from "certain sensitive destinations".

Last year, Venezuelan security forces working with Colombian authorities and US and British intelligence agencies caught one of the most-wanted Colombian kingpins - Daniel "Crazy" Barrera - during an operation in a Venezuelan border city.