Tonne of cocaine shipped from Panama and valued at £80m seized by UK Border Force | EUROtoday

Border Force officers have seized roughly one tonne of cocaine with an estimated avenue worth of £80 million throughout a big operation at an Essex port.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has launched an investigation following the invention at London Gateway port on Friday.

The illicit consignment was discovered packaged in a number of holdalls inside a transport container that had arrived from Panama.

Officials stated the container, which additionally held a reputable cowl load of ceramics and kitchenware, was destined for Norway.

NCA officers imagine the haul would have been price round £80 million if it had been reduce and bought on the streets of the UK.

NCA senior investigating officer Paul Orchard stated: “This was a fantastic seizure by our colleagues at Border Force, and taking this amount of cocaine out of circulation will have deprived the organised criminals involved of millions in profits.

“At this point we don’t believe the UK was the end destination for this consignment, but we are working with international partners to identify the routing and target those involved. Those investigations continue.”

Earlier this month, police revealed they’d seized an “unusual” assortment of things, together with a gold bar, a gold suitcase, and even gold tooth, throughout a week-long operation focusing on drug gangs that led to over 2,000 arrests.

Nearly 10 per cent of these detained have been kids, some as younger as 14, highlighting the exploitation by these legal networks.

Officers additionally closed 335 “drug lines” suspected of distributing heroin, cocaine, and spice-laced vapes throughout varied cities and cities, the National Police Chiefs’ Council reported.

These county traces gangs are recognized for exploiting weak adults and kids, utilising devoted cellphone traces to facilitate the transport and sale of unlawful medication.

Police seizures of cocaine hit a file excessive final 12 months with 23,706 seizures logged within the 12 months to March 2025 – up 13 per cent from the earlier 12 months.

Meanwhile, Border Force and police forces intercepted medication on a record-breaking 269,000 events, a rise of 24 per cent on the 12 months earlier than.