£40m ocaine has been discovered smuggled in a batch of bananas in a port on the Thames.
The National Crime Bureau (NCA) said officers seized more than half a ton of the Class A drug on a boat traveling from Colombia, near London Gateway on the Essex coast, South East England.
Investigators intercepted the shipment, which was en route to the The Netherlandson Tuesday.
Hundreds of huge slabs of cocaine were found among bananas in cardboard boxes.
The NCA said the catch would have had a UK street value of over £40 million once cut and sold.
NCA branch operations manager, Adam Berry, described the discovery as a “huge blow” to the peddlers.
He said: “Unpacking a shipment of this size will have been a huge blow to the criminal network involved in this shipment, not making them earn millions of pounds invested in further crime.
“Class A drugs are used by gangs involved in violence and exploitation in our communities.
“The NCA is working hard with partners to prevent drugs from getting that far, and making repossessions like this shows how we can break that link between international drug cartels and street dealers.”