Border Force intercepted 2.9 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment at London Gateway Port in Thurrock, Essex, on Thursday. The haul, worth £232m, was removed before the drugs courier took the empty load on to an address near Buntingford, Hertfordshire.
The shipment had arrived from South America, and the National Crime Agency tipped off Border Force about the illegal consignment. Nine men allegedly connected to the bust were later arrested and released on bail.
Dave Phillips on the seizure
Dave Phillips, the senior investigating officer, said: “This is a very significant seizure which has deprived the organised crime group behind it of huge profits”
He added: “That is money that cannot be ploughed back into further crime.”
London Gateway Port in Thurrock
The load weighed 2.9 tonnes, or 2,900kg, making it one of the larger cocaine recoveries tied to a single freight movement. The route matters because the trailer was already in motion after Border Force had removed the drugs, leaving the courier to continue with an empty unit.
That sequence points to how the shipment was being used: the banana consignment provided cover, while the empty trailer still moved onward after the drugs were taken out. For a reader following the case, the practical question now is how the nine men allegedly connected to the bust were linked to the load, because that link has not been set out in the available facts.
National Crime Agency tip-off
The tip-off from the National Crime Agency shows the seizure did not begin with a routine stop at the port. It began with intelligence, then a port interception, then arrests, and then bail for the nine men.
Border Force Range Rover claim and record Dinghy migrants case are separate stories, but this seizure follows the same enforcement pattern of intelligence leading to a physical stop.
For anyone tracking the case, the immediate answer is simple: the cocaine is out of circulation, the trailer was emptied at the port, and the next missing piece is the link between the shipment and the men arrested.
