A tonne of cocaine worth £100m has been seized as part of a joint operation between Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency.
Two men have been arrested after the drugs were found within a consignment of fruit at Dover in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
A 64-year-old man in Glasgow and a 40-year-old man in Essex are being held on suspicion of importing class A drugs.
Police Scotland said the massive haul was hidden with fruit on a vessel from South America and was destined for Scotland.
Searches have also been carried out at in Glasgow and Essex as the investigation continues.
The investigation is linked to Operation Venetic, which has so far seen hundreds of arrests across the UK following the infiltration of an encrypted communications platform.
Angela McLaren, Police Scotland’s assistant chief constable, said: “This seizure is undoubtedly a massive setback for serious and organised criminals.
“This operation and our other recent successes, underlines our unwavering commitment to working with partners, including the NCA, Border Force and SOC Taskforce to seriously disrupt this sort of criminality.
“Working together we will relentlessly pursue those who seek to bring misery to our communities whether they are in Scotland or elsewhere in the world. ”
The Organised Crime Partnership (Scotland) is a covert investigation team comprising of officers and staff from Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency.
“This operation has prevented a large amount of cocaine from making it on to our streets, we estimate that once adulterated and sold it could have had a street value of up to £100m.”
Nikki Holland, NCA Director of Investigations
NCA Director of Investigations Nikki Holland said the operation has prevented a large amount of cocaine from making it onto the streets of Scotland.
She said: “This is a huge seizure of class A drugs, made as a result of some excellent joint working between the NCA and Police Scotland under the Organised Crime Partnership (Scotland), and our Border Force colleagues.
“This operation has prevented a large amount of cocaine from making it on to our streets, we estimate that once adulterated and sold it could have had a street value of up to £100m.
“So in making this seizure we have taken away a valuable commodity that would have been sold to fund further serious and organised criminality.
“Our investigation into this attempted importation is continuing.”
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