A YACHT at the centre of the largest drugs seizure in UK history is being sold off tonight.

Today the previous owners of the Louise are in a prison in the Netherlands.

Their luxury yacht had been used to import cocaine with an estimated street value of up to £300m when it was seized by UK Border Agency officers at Southampton docks.

Experts believe inside it was enough of the class A drug to sustain about a third of the annual UK market.

But now the vessel is awaiting a new owner - with a potential valuation of £150,000 - after the UK Government put it up for sale under the proceeds of crime act.

Built in 2002 by a firm in the Netherlands, the Louise was bought by a Dutch crime gang to smuggle hard drugs to Europe from South America.

But the following year the authorities were tipped off that a cargo ship was carrying the boat across the Atlantic from the Caribbean which contained a shipment of drugs.

When the ship arrived in Southampton docks border force officers pounced on the yacht in its hold.

After days searching the yacht with sniffer dogs, they discovered the cocaine bagged up in a deep compartment below a diving platform.

A spokesperson for the department in Northern Ireland said the money raised would go back into central government.

He said: “All seized items once they are deemed ready for disposal are either destroyed or sold as appropriate and the proceeds are deposited with HM Treasury.

“The accounts for the amounts raised from such sales have not yet been published.”