Load of bananas turned out to be one of biggest cocaine hauls in UK history

Round £300 million price of cocaine was discovered (Image: Leon McGowran)

Practically 4 tonnes of cocaine has been present in bins of bananas in Southampton.

It's the largest seizure of the Class A substance within the UK for seven years, in keeping with the Dwelling Workplace.

The containers had lately arrived within the metropolis’s dock from Colombia and Border Pressure and the Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) focused them for inspection.

They found greater than 3.7 tonnes of cocaine hydrochloride, used to make crack cocaine, hid inside a container of 20 pallets of bananas final month.

The white powdery substance – estimated to have a price of round £300 million – was discovered inside 5 of the pallets on March 17, 2022.

Dwelling Secretary Priti Patel stated: ‘That is the biggest seizure of cocaine within the UK since 2015. It ought to function a warning to anybody making an attempt to smuggle unlawful medicine into the nation that we're out to get them.

‘A key focus of our beating crime plan is disrupting the provision chain and relentless pursuit of the criminals peddling these narcotics, making the medicine market a low-reward excessive danger enterprise.

The white powdery substance was cocaine hydrochloride, which is used to make crack cocaine (Image: Hyde Information & Footage Ltd)

‘The police and Border Pressure have my 100% backing to make use of all accessible powers to cease devastating medicine from coming into our neighbourhoods and destroying lives.’

Tim Kingsberry, the regional director of Border Pressure South, added: ‘This can be a one of many largest seizures of cocaine within the UK for a few years which, had it not been stopped, would have ended up within the palms of gangs concerned in avenue violence and exploitation.

‘This seizure and others prefer it ship a transparent message to anybody contemplating trying to smuggle unlawful medicine into the nation that we are going to discover it.

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‘The officers concerned on this seizure will be pleased with their excellent efforts in stopping this drug consignment from reaching our communities and destroying lives.’

The NCA branded the seizure ‘monumental’ and stated it denied organised crime teams large income.

‘There’s little doubt a few of this cocaine would have been reduce up and bought throughout UK streets, feeding crime and distress in our communities’, Peter Stevens, the organisation’s regional head of investigations, stated.