A tug boat captain and his second in command have been found guilty of running an international drug smuggling ring after being caught with a £512m cocaine haul.

The haul was found hidden in the MV Hamal tug boat, which was intercepted by a Royal Navy warship around 100 miles off the coast of Aberdeen.

It was believed to be the biggest class A drugs seizure in the UK when it was intercepted in the operation led by the National Crime Agency on a tip-off from French authorities.

Once the tug was escorted to Aberdeen Harbour, a human chain of law enforcement officials was formed to move 129 bales of cocaine weighing a total of 3.2 tonnes once they had been removed from the boat using a crane.

It had been found in a modified ballast tank which was behind a secret panel inside the vessel's medical bay.

The Turkish crew of the boat were accused of being involved in an international drug-running operation by smuggling cocaine from Istanbul in Turkey via Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain, to South America, and then to the North Sea between February and April 2015.

On Monday, jurors at the High Court in Glasgow returned guilty verdicts for two crew members - Mumin Sahin, 46, who was captain of the vessel ,and 51-year-old gangmaster Emin Ozmen.

They were convicted of smuggling the drug on board the Hamal vessel, as well as a second charge of being concerned in the supply of the drug.

Four others - Ibrahim Dag, 48; Kayacan Dalgakiran, 64; Mustafa Guven, 48, and Umit Colakel, 39 - were given not proven verdicts after the 12-week trial before Lord Kinclaven.

Three other crew members - Mustafa Ceviz, 55; Abdulkadir Cirik, 32; and Muhammet Seckin, 27 - were cleared earlier in the trial after the same charges were thrown out.

Judge Lord Kinclaven remanded first offenders Sahin and Ozmen in custody until sentencing next month.

The purity of the cocaine ranged from between 58 and 74%. Police drugs expert Jurgen Wahla revealed the haul had a potential UK street value of £512m

This would happen if the cocaine was adulterated to around 15% pure and sold in one gram deals. Mr Wahla added: "It is a massive importation - unprecedented in what I've seen in my experience."

Mustafa Guven gave evidence during the trial. The father-of-three recalled he ended up on the Hamal after answering a job advert he spotted at a bus stop back in Turkey.

Guven had no previous experience of being employed on a boat - but said he was told during the call it was "not important". Via an interpreter, he told the jury: "I thought it would be fantastic to work on the sea."

He said there had been an "agreement" the voyage would last six months, but, at first, he did not know where the ship was going. Guven recalled the boat ending up in a number of locations including Greece, Tenerife and Guyana.

In her closing speech, prosecutor Ashley Edwards told the jury those guilty "played a part in concealing the drugs and allowing them to be transported".