Cocaine haul worth £50m washes up on Norfolk coast
A HAUL of cocaine with a street value of more than £50million was washed ashore on the Norfolk coast yesterday.
A beach walker stumbled across heavy duty sports holdalls that contained a third of a ton (360kg) of the uncut class A drug.
The first stash of nine bags, containing 1kg bales of the drug, was washed up on Hopton Beach near Great Yarmouth.
Officers then found a smaller but similar batch of bags on a beach near Caister, further up the coast.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said it was unlikely the massive haul was destined for the seaside town.
Instead it is investigating whether they were washed ashore after a botched transfer in the North Sea.
Several of the bags were attached to bright green water containers which could have been used as floats. All of them contained compressed packs of cocaine, bound with tape and marked with the logo of an international drugs cartel.
The drugs are being examined for forensic evidence including fingerprints and DNA. Investigators are also looking at shipping logs from a national control centre to identify what boats were in the area over the previous 48 hours.
Police chiefs have sent officers to patrol the beaches over fears that ‘treasure hunters’ could be looking for more of the illegal cargo.
The NCA was quick to see the lighter side of the haul, goading the gang behind it and posting images
‘Modern day Whisky Galore’
of the colourful bags lying on the pebble shore of one of the beaches.
One officer tweeted: ‘And you thought your missing luggage was bad... If anyone wants to claim it, we’re keeping it safe for you,’ followed by a ‘winking’ emoticon.
In another message, the agency added: ‘Potential street value could have been more than £50million once cut & sold. Someone somewhere is having a very bad day.’
Other social media users were quick to join in. One joked it was like a ‘modern day Whisky Galore’ – the 1949 film about a ship with 50,000 bottles of whisky which runs aground off a fictional Scottish isle.
Matthew Rivers, of the NCA’s border investigation team, said the loss of the drugs would be a ‘major blow’ to the criminal network, adding: ‘Given the cocaine comes from South America it would be fair to say it was heading to Europe but we cannot say where exactly.
‘It is estimated to have a street value of around £50million, there is about 360 or 370kg of cocaine.
‘These are unusual circumstances but nevertheless it is a very good seizure for law enforcement.’
Experts have previously warned that the East Anglian coast could be a target for drug smugglers as security increases at Channel ports.
In recent years several large hauls of drugs have been seized as well as groups of illegal immigrants.
It is not the first time that hauls of drugs have washed ashore around the British and Irish coast.
Last October a 6ft-long ‘torpedo’ stuffed with £4.4million of cocaine was found in Ireland. Officers found 75kg of the drug in County Clare, close to a landmark range of cliffs and surfing spot, after a tip-off.
Several years earlier packages containing 50kg of cocaine were washed up on beaches at Bude and Carleon Cove, on The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall.