Drug smugglers buying airliners to fly cocaine across Atlantic in bulk

US government investigators said South American gangs have struck deals to fly drugs to West Africa and from there to Europe.

Large jets can cross the Atlantic virtually undetected because there is no radar in the middle of the ocean.

Experts say the air route is remarkable because of the distances involved and the complexity of flying the jets.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime began warning about trans-Atlantic drug planes a year ago when a burned-out Boeing 727 was found in the desert in Mali. Drug smugglers had flown it from Venezuela, unloaded it and then destroyed the aircraft.

In the last year, a flurry of arrests have started shedding light on how the air routes work and five cases are currently being prosecuted in a New York federal court because some of the cocaine was supposed to have been sent to the United States.

One trafficker claimed he already had six aircraft flying. Another said he was managing five planes.

Carlos Moreno, an expert on trafficking at Icesi University in Cali, Colombia, said several factors have made trans-Atlantic air routes more attractive, including increased cocaine use in Europe while better radar coverage has made it harder to move the drug to the United States.

The global economic slump has also left hundreds of cargo jets idle and for sale at cut prices.