A British Royal Navy helicopter fires at a boat used to smuggle drugs off the coast of South America.

It's on this boat that the British navy says it made its largest ever seizure of cocaine, five and half tons of the drug, with a street value of 379 million dollars (USD).

The 138-foot fishing boat was spotted by a Royal Navy helicopter in an area known for trafficking. This led to the swoop in a joint operation with the U.S. Coast Guard.

It took more than 24 hours of intensive searching of the drug runner's vessel for the stash to be found, smashing through a concrete floor and unbolting steel panels. The 212 large packages -- each weighing 26 kgs – were hidden under the ship's regular stores.

After the bust, the vessel which showed signs of trouble, began drifting towards a major shipping lane, prompting the naval crew to try and sink it with gunfire.

The British Navy has hailed this as a massive blow to the narcotics industry. Since March 2008, it has seized drugs worth a total of 774 million dollars (USD).