£100 million worth of cocaine hidden in fruit shipment seized at Dover port

Two men charged amid joint NCA and Police Scotland operation

Around a tonne of cocaine worth up to £100 million has been seized at Dover concealed within a shipment of fruit.

The drugs were found in the early hours of Tuesday hidden in pallets that had arrived at the Kent port on a vessel from South America.

Searches have been carried out in Glasgow and Essex as the investigation continues, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of importing class A drugs – a 40-year-old in Brentwood, Essex, and a 64-year-old in central Glasgow.

Both were questioned before being released under investigation.

The investigation is linked to

Operation Venetic, which has so far seen hundreds of arrests across the UK following the infiltration of an encrypted communications platform.

NCA director of investigations Nikki Holland said: “This is a huge seizure of class A drugs, made as a result of some excellent joint working between the NCA and Police Scotland under the Organised Crime Partnership (Scotland), and our Border Force colleagues.

“This operation has prevented a large amount of cocaine from making it on to our streets, we estimate that once adulterated and sold it could have had a street value of up to £100m.

“So in making this seizure we have taken away a valuable commodity that would have been sold to fund further serious and organised criminality.”

Angela McLaren, assistant chief constable organised crime, counter terrorism and intelligence, said: “This operation and our other recent successes underline our unwavering commitment to working with partners, including the NCA, Border Force and SOC Taskforce, to disrupt this sort of criminality.”

The drugs were discovered in pallets which had arrived into Dover on a vessel from South America.