British border officials have intercepted approximately five tonnes of cocaine valued at around £400 million ($540 million) in a series of major seizures at London Gateway port, the government confirmed on Saturday.
The drugs were discovered during coordinated operations carried out in February and March at one of the UK’s busiest shipping hubs. The largest seizure involved nearly 2,800 packages of cocaine—about three tonnes in total—concealed inside a shipment of bananas.
Authorities said smugglers went to extreme lengths to avoid detection, carefully shaping and weighing the drugs to match banana boxes and hide them seamlessly within fruit cargo inside a single container.
In a separate operation last month, officers uncovered another large consignment—worth about £80 million and weighing roughly one tonne—hidden within a shipment of South American wine.
The Home Office reported that Border Force officers seized nearly 150 tonnes of illegal drugs over the 12 months ending in March, underscoring ongoing efforts to disrupt international trafficking networks using UK ports.
