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.
“Although the destination of the shipment in this case was continental Europe, I have no doubt that a significant proportion would have ended up here in the UK, sold by British criminal gangs.”
Officers are now working to identify the criminal networks involved in the shipment to the port of Hampshire, which was ultimately destined for Hamburg, Germany.
The domestic cocaine market is dominated by criminal gangs, which the NCA believes make around £4bn a year in the UK alone.
“The NCA is targeting international networks at home and abroad, disrupting and destroying them at every turn,” Mr Farrimond added.
An NCA spokesman said the cocaine trade was “closely linked” to serious violence throughout the supply chain, including crime in the UK.
The cocaine trade has seen an “exponential increase” in related violence in recent years, he added.
The Minister for Legal Migration and Borders, Tom Pursglove, said the government has a zero tolerance approach to the supply of illegal drugs.
“This seizure sends a clear message to criminals that they will be caught. Our Border Force officers continue to work relentlessly to protect our borders and ensure the safety and security of the public,” Pursglove added.
