The new "British FBI" seized 73 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of more than £3bn in its first year.
The new "British FBI" seized 73 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of more than £3bn in its first year.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency or Soca said the haul, most of which was intercepted at sea, represents a fifth of Europe's annual supply.
Officers working on the other side of the Atlantic are partly responsible for the success which targets vulnerable transport networks, the agency said.
They use tip-offs from many sources, including officials in the United States, to trace drugs back to their sources in Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil and the Caribbean.
Soca has also been involved in supporting Scottish forces, including the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, the "FBI" north of the border.
Its agents helped in a major Central Scotland Police operation to arrest a Grangemouth couple wanted in America amid allegations they were supplying the ingredients for crystal meth.
A new anti-smuggling centre in Portugal is expected to help intercept even more drugs destined for Western Europe in the future, while officers working in Afghanistan identified 80 key people responsible for the production and supply of heroin.
Officers also recovered 1.5 tonnes of heroin, 4.4 million ecstasy tablets, 260 kilos of opium and one million doses of LSD.
Sir Stephen Lander, the agency's chair, said the Royal Navy plays a key role in tackling drugs trafficking by sea.
He said: "This has a lot of potential to damage the trade because there is a water bridge between production of the product and its sale in Europe. We are trying to disrupt that."
Anti-drug officers are now turning their attention to new supply routes emerging from Kenya, West Africa, Russia and Turkey.
The agency, created by the merger of several crime-fighting agencies, published its first annual report yesterday.
It revealed that 35 people are still alive today after officers worked with police to block potential murder plots.
A target list of 1600 of Britains worst criminals has been drawn up, with 160 of those made a priority to be brought to justice.
However, critics called for more transparency and said Soca must learn fast lessons, particularly over seizing criminal assets and prosecuting offenders.
Sir Stephen said information identifying organised criminals inherited by the organisation from other law enforcement agencies was "generally poor".
He said the list of 1600 was boiled down from some 80,000 names brought together by combining previously held intelligence lists from a range of organisations.
Bill Hughes, Soca director-general, said: "We have been set up to make Britain a bad place for serious criminals.
"The information we are getting now is that they are beginning to feel the heat and we want to turn that heat up."
Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "In its first year, Soca has made a real impact by seizing large quantities of class A drugs, making well in excess of 1000 arrests and preventing massive amounts of fraud - these are all fantastic achievements."
Soca was created by the merger of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service as well as parts of Revenue and Customs and the Immigration Service. It has a presence in Scotland where it liaises closely with the SCDEA.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "It is too early to properly assess Soca's effectiveness after just a year in operation. There are positives from the report, including the volume of drugs seized and strengthened international co-operation.
"There are also points of concern. Soca has prosecuted fewer cases in the UK courts than its predecessor and missed its targets on seizing criminal assets.
"It is critical that Soca learns the right lessons during this early period, so it can develop its operational capacity to disrupt and put behind bars those involved in serious organised crime."
