In what is currently being considered as the Biggest Drug Seizure Of Britain, the police seized nearly 1.3 tons of heroin worth £120 Million from a container ship at Felixstowe.

An operation led by the officers of the National Crime Agency led to the buy-bust operation, in which they raided a container of the MV Gibraltar after it docked at Felixstowe in Suffolk on August 30, 2019.

Officers of the National Crime Agency received a tip-off about the shipment, they found the heroin in a container that was full of towels and bathrobes.

To check out where the container was headed, the investigating officers removed the drugs from the container and returned the container to the vessel.

The vessel then went on a trip and docked in Antwerp, on September 1, 2019.

While being watched by the law enforcement agencies of the Netherlands and Belgium, the drug container was driven by a lorry to a warehouse in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Also Read: US Authorities Seize 16.5 Tons Of Cocaine Worth $1 Billion USD From A Cargo Ship In Philadelphia

After the lorry arrived, investigating officers moved in and arrested 4 people on the scene.

This 1.3 tons of heroin bust comes after a 398-kilogram seizure from a vessel at Felixstowe on August 2, 2019.

Matt Horne, the deputy director for investigations of the National Crime Agency, said that this is a record of heroin seizure in the United Kingdom.

Matt added this is one of the largest heroin busts in Europe.

Matt released a statement about the seizure, it stated, “It will have denied organized crime tens of millions of pounds in profits, and is the result of a targeted, intelligence-led investigation, carried out by the NCA with international and UK partners. The size of this and other recent shipments demonstrate the scale of the threat we face.”

The statement added, “We can be certain that some of these drugs would eventually have been sold in the UK, fuelling high levels of violence and exploitation including what we see in county lines offending nationwide.”

The statement continued, “The heroin trade also feeds addictions that put users’ lives at risk, while giving rise to crime such as theft which make people feel unsafe in their homes and communities. NCA officers on the front line lead the fight against the serious and organized criminals who chase profits while dominating and intimidating communities. However, reducing UK demand for illegal commodities such as heroin requires a systematic response across multiple sectors, including health and social care, prisons and education.”

Jenny Sharp, the border force assistant director at Felixstowe, released a statement about the seizure.

The statement said, “This is a huge seizure – there is no other word for it given the quantities involved – which has kept dangerous drugs off the streets of the UK and mainland Europe. It speaks well of the effective work we do with our law enforcement partners at home and abroad and I’m extremely proud of all the officers involved.”

It added, “The smugglers had hidden the drugs within a cover load of towels, stitching the 1kg blocks of heroin inside some of the towels. In total it took my officers nearly six hours – working in the early hours of Saturday morning – to remove the drugs.”