Cocaine hidden deep within a container ship at Sheerness Port in Kent has been seized as part of a National Crime Agency investigation involving police officers and the UK’s law-enforcement command, Border Force.
The drugs, which weighed 137kg, were found on a Panamanian-registered ship carrying a load of bananas. They had been placed in four large hold-alls which were hidden below the water line inside the sea chest, an intake area for sea water to assist stability.
The ship was destined for the Netherlands, but on the basis of information supplied by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), specialist teams undertook searches after the vessel docked at Sheerness on 14 October.
After carrying out an underwater search of the ship’s hull in reduced visibility, a specialist dive team from the National Police Chiefs’ Council took five hours to recover the drugs, which were behind bolted-up grills. The Border Force National Deep Rummage Team, together with officers at port operator Peel Ports, assisted the police with the recovery.
The cocaine is likely to have had a UK street value in excess of £10 million (about R224 million) once cut and sold.
It is one of only two underwater concealments of class A drugs of its kind ever discovered in the UK, the last being at Bristol in November 2021, when 46kg of cocaine was detected.
NCA operations manager David Phillips said: “This was an extremely rare and sophisticated concealment, and shows how far criminal networks will go to get dangerous drugs like cocaine into circulation.
“The sale of such class A drugs is controlled by gangs who inflict violence and exploitation in our communities.”
NCA investigators believe the final destination for the drugs was likely to have been the Netherlands, and are now working with law-enforcement partners there and in Panama.
The deputy director of Border Force Maritime Command, Stephen Whitton, said the combined efforts of the NCA, police and Border Force, had prevented £10 million worth of cocaine from hitting the streets.
“Border Force remain committed to working round the clock to intercept drug supply chains, and will continue work closely with our counterparts to identify and prevent the new methods that criminals take to smuggle illegal drugs in or out of the UK,” said Whitton.
