▶ Watch Video: Coast Guard announces largest cocaine seizure in agency history
Border agents in the United Kingdom have seized about five tons of cocaine at a single port in just under a month, the country’s Home Office said on social media.
The drugs are estimated to be worth over £400 million, or about $538 million, the agency said.
The drugs were seized at London Gateway, a deep-sea container port about 30 miles from London. It is the second-largest port in England and handles large container ships.
The Home Office said “criminal gangs attempted to evade detection” by hiding drugs in other cargo, including inside a banana shipment and on a vat of South American wine. Photos show the drugs inside cargo containers and inside shipments, as well as spread out on a building floor.
The Home Office did not say if any arrests have been made as part of the seizures.
It’s not the first major bust at a London port in recent weeks. Three men were charged after allegedly attempting to smuggle nearly $100 million worth of cocaine through England’s Southampton Docks in March. The three men, who were all arrested and will next appear in court on April 17, hid the drugs in a banana shipment.
In February 2024, another Southampton Docks banana shipment was found to be holding more than 12,500 pounds of cocaine. At the time, it was the country’s largest recorded single seizure of illicit drugs.
Authorities around the world have found drugs smuggled inside banana shipments. Greek police seized nearly 600 pounds of cocaine inside a banana shipment in August 2025. In July, Russia said it seized 1,800 pounds of cocaine hidden under bananas, and in May, authorities in Norway found over 320 pounds of cocaine inside a banana shipment after workers at a fruit distributor in Norway found a packet of the illicit drugs.
