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British border officials have intercepted about five tonnes of cocaine, with an estimated street value of £400 million ($540 million), at one of London’s major port terminals, the government said on Saturday.
The drugs were discovered during a series of operations at London Gateway port in February and March, including the largest single seizure of nearly 2,800 packages concealed in a banana shipment weighing about three tonnes.
Authorities said those behind the shipment attempted to evade detection by carefully replicating the shape and weight of banana boxes to disguise the cocaine inside a container of fruit.
“The smugglers had gone to extreme lengths to avoid detection — trying to replicate the exact shape and weight of banana boxes to conceal the drugs inside, among fruit in a single shipping container,” the Home Office said in a statement.
The Home Office said another consignment, valued at about £80 million and weighing roughly one tonne, was recovered in March from a shipping container carrying South American wine.
It added that border authorities seized nearly 150 tonnes of illegal drugs in March, reflecting continued efforts to disrupt trafficking networks entering the country.
