A shipment of cocaine worth £450 million has been seized in the port of Southampton in a “major raid” by crime cartels.
It is the biggest seizure of Class A drugs in the UK to date, with officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Border Force finding 5.7 tonnes of cocaine in a container carrying bananas from South America.
This far surpasses the previous record of 3.7 tonnes discovered in the same port in 2022 and 3.2 tonnes found on the tugboat MV Hamal in Scotland in 2015.
The 2015 seizure was estimated to be worth £512 million due to the difference in cocaine prices in Scotland at the time.
“This record seizure will be a major blow to the international organized crime cartels involved, depriving them of huge profits,” NCA director Chris Farrimond said.
