Nine men have been charged with drug trafficking after the British coastguard seized more than two tonnes of cocaine off the east coast of Scotland.

The drugs were found when Royal Navy and the British coastguard ships intercepted the Hamal, a 35-metre tugboat registered in the Marshall Islands and owned by a Ukrainian company.

French customs identified the ship after it left the Canary Islands for northern Europe in mid-April by an unusual route that skirted Britain.