British police recorded a record seizure of 5.7 tonnes of cocaine on February 8 in a container at the port of Southampton (south), the Organized Crime Agency (NCA) announced on Friday February 23.
The cocaine, with a street value of more than £450 million (€525 million) according to UK market prices, was hidden in a shipment of bananas from South America.
NCA investigators believe the final destination of the goods was the German port of Hamburg.
Previous records for cocaine seizures in the UK were 3.7 tonnes and 3.2 tonnes, according to the NCA, which estimates the UK market to be worth £4 billion a year.
The NCA highlights the close links between cocaine trafficking, in
“exponential growth”
in recent years, and violence.
Quoted in a press release, NCA director Chris Farrimond stressed that this record seizure
“represents a major blow against international cartels”
,
“depriving them of massive profits”
.
The announcement comes as significant seizures have taken place in recent months in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, the three main European countries for cocaine imports, most coming from Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. .
The Belgian port of Antwerp reported 116 tonnes of cocaine seized last year, a record, while Dutch authorities said they seized 59.1 tonnes of cocaine over the same period.
Antwerp and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, are regularly the scene of gunfire and explosions linked to turf wars between powerful international drug gangs.
The two ports were the two main entry points used by a Dubai-based "super cartel" supplying a third of Europe's cocaine, which Europol said it had dismantled by the end of 2022.
Cocaine is usually hidden in containers, or sometimes under ships, in locations below the waterline, where it is then recovered by divers.