More than 3.7 tonnes of cocaine hydrochloride, hidden in boxes of bananas in a container of 20 fruit pallets, were seized by the UK Border Forces at Southampton Docks on 17 March. The container recently arrived from Colombia before being inspected by force and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Image: Home Secretary said the withdrawal was “the largest cocaine seizure in the UK since 2015”. Photo: NCA / Border Force Wrapped packages of white powder were found in five of the pallets, which were found to be positive for cocaine hydrochloride, which is used to make cocaine crack. Home Secretary Pretty Patel described the ransom, worth around 2 302m, as “the largest cocaine seizure in the UK since 2015”. It should, he said, “serve as a warning to anyone trying to smuggle drugs into the country that we are out to get them.” The main focus of the government’s Beating Crime plan is to “disrupt the supply chain and ruthlessly pursue drug traffickers, making the drug market a low-reward, high-risk business,” Patel added. “The police and the border force have my full support to use all available forces to stop the destructive drugs coming into our neighborhoods and destroying lives,” he said. Peter Stevens, the NCA’s regional director of investigations, said: “This is a monumental cocaine seizure worth a total of about 300 300 million. “The organized crime team behind this introduction has been deprived of huge profits which it would have returned to greater offense. “There is no doubt that part of this cocaine would have been cut and sold on the streets of the United Kingdom, fueling crime and misery in our communities.” But despite the optimism, drug policy groups are skeptical about the real impact of major seizures. Steve Rolles, Senior Policy Analyst at Transform Drugs Policy, dismissed the Home Secretary’s remarks, saying that while they sound impressive, large-scale seizures “obviously do not work to deter criminals.” “Cocaine deaths have increased 40-fold since the 1990s. Every year it gets cheaper, cleaner and more accessible. And more and more young people are being cared for and exploited in the provinces,” he said. County lines are the name given to urban drug dealers who move to rural areas, often treating and exploiting children to sell the product. The UK cocaine market is estimated to be worth more than 25 25.7 million a day in England, Scotland and Wales, according to the latest NCA Strategic Threat Assessment.
