A cargo of £450m price of cocaine has been seized at Southampton Port in a “huge hit” to crime cartels.
It’s the largest-ever seizure of a haul of sophistication A medicine within the UK, with National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force officers discovering 5.7 tonnes in a container carrying bananas from South America on 8 February.
This far eclipses the earlier file of 3.7 tonnes found on the similar port in 2022 and three.2 tonnes discovered on board the tugboat MV Hamal in Scotland in 2015.
The 2015 haul was estimated at a worth of £512m due to a distinction in cocaine costs skilled in Scotland at the moment.
“This record-breaking seizure will represent a huge hit to the international organised crime cartels involved, denying them massive profits,” NCA director Chris Farrimond stated.
“While the destination for the consignment was continental Europe in this case, I have no doubt that a significant proportion would have ended up back here in the UK, being peddled by UK criminal gangs.”
Officers at the moment are working to determine the felony networks concerned within the cargo to the Hampshire port, which was finally destined for Hamburg in Germany.
The home cocaine market is dominated by felony gangs which the NCA consider to be making round £4bn a yr within the UK alone.
“The NCA is targeting international networks upstream and overseas, disrupting and dismantling them at every step,” Mr Farrimond added.
“International law enforcement cooperation is essential to this mission.”
A spokesman for the NCA stated cocaine trafficking is “closely linked” to severe violence all through the provision chain, together with firearms and knife crime within the UK.
The cocaine commerce has seen an “exponential rise” in related violence previously few years, he added.
Read extra:
Police canine helps with £1.8m seizure
Dad who takes medicine in a cage
Italy’s biggest-ever medicine bust
The minister for authorized migration and the border, Tom Pursglove, stated the federal government takes a zero-tolerance method to the provision of unlawful medicine.
“This seizure sends a clear message to criminals that they will be caught,” he added.
“Our Border Force officers continue to work relentlessly to protect our borders and ensure the safety and security of the public.”
Source: information.sky.com”