The Colombian navy has intercepted a semi-submersible vessel packed with cocaine in the Pacific Ocean, as part of an operation in which hundreds of arrests have been made.

It said the vessel had enough fuel to sail to Australia, on what was believed to be a new smuggling route, and maps indicated that is where it was headed.

Smuggling cocaine from South America to Australia is particularly lucrative, as a kilogramme of the illegal drug can fetch up to $240,000 (£190,000) there - six times more than in the US, Colombian security forces said.

Officials said the semi-submersible was the third such vessel they had seized in that part of the Pacific.

That suggested to them that gangs had established new direct maritime route to Australia, they said.

Australians are the highest per capita users of cocaine in the world, followed by Britain, according to the OECD.

The latest narco-sub was intercepted 1,200 miles southwest of Clipperton Island, an uninhabited French coral atoll in the Pacific.

The wood-and-fibre-glass vessel is thought to have sailed from the Colombian port of Tumaco, covering thousands of miles before it was stopped.

The chief of naval operations staff for the Colombian Navy, Vice-Admiral Orlando Enrique Grisales, said the three semi-submersibles they had stopped were all capable of sailing from Colombia to Australia without the need to refuel at sea.

“The first was discovered in Colombian waters, and thanks to the maps it carried, we identified the route," the vice-admiral told reporters at a news conference.

"That’s when we began working with Australian authorities,” he added.

The semi-submersibles were intercepted as part of "Orion", a multinational naval operation during which security forces from dozens of nations seized a total of 225 tonnes of cocaine over six weeks.

Orion also led to the arrest of more than 400 people across several countries.

Vice-Adm Grisales said Orion had uncovered close links between drug trafficking gangs in South America and Oceania.

"They are organised crime networks joined together," he said.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro congratulated the navy for the successful operation.