A group of Portsmouth dock workers tried to import a large amount of cocaine into the UK. Three Portsmouth dock workers and a lorry driver are now accused of conspiring to import Class A drugs.
Robin Leach, prosecuting, said the men tried to move £118 mln worth of cocaine through the port into the UK. However, they were unaware that the drugs however had been discovered and removed during a stopover in the Netherlands.
The drugs were initially hidden inside a cargo ship that left Turbo in Colombia on 7 April with 372 pallets of bananas destined for UK supermarkets. No less than 1.5 tons of cocaine were hidden in two of the pallets.
When the ship docked at Vlissingen in the Netherlands on 21 April, sniffer dogs found the drugs and police removed them. UK Border Force officers were alerted, but the two pallets remained on the ship as it sailed to its final destination at Portico's terminal at Portsmouth, Hampshire two days later. After the ship docked, border force officers replaced the cocaine with dummy blocks and audio equipment.
The defendants all deny one charge of conspiring to import Class A drugs. The trial continues.
Source: bbc.com