Cocaine worth £5m seized at Kent port

A haul of cocaine with a street value of millions has been seized at a port in Kent.

Taped packages of the class A drug were found by Border Force officers in the fan motor space of a container at Sheerness Port on Sunday, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

The stash of 56kg of cocaine, worth around £5 million when mixed and sold on the streets, was found in a container that had arrived from South America.

NCA senior investigating officer Adam Berry said: “This operation has seen criminal groups deprived of a substantial amount of profit.

“Working with our law enforcement partners like Border Force, we are determined to do all we can to disrupt the flow of illicit drugs into the UK and prevent the violence and exploitation that follows.”

The seizure is the second at Sheerness within a month, with 1.2 tonnes of cocaine found just before Christmas and seven arrests made.

Officials are not linking the two finds.