Cocaine Worth £25m Hidden In Fake Bananas

A £25m cocaine haul has been found hidden inside fake plastic bananas brought to the UK from Colombia.

Four men have been arrested in Lambeth and Kent after a surveillance operation followed the drugs, which weighed 150kg (23st), to a warehouse.

Metropolitan Police said the illicit stash arrived at Dover at 6am on Thursday and was delivered by lorry to a trading estate in Hartlip, Kent.

A man was seen unloading the shipment and locking up the warehouse.

Detectives kept watch over the warehouse while others followed three Colombian men to an internet cafe in Stockwell, south London, where they are believed to have picked up email instructions relating to the drugs.

The men were arrested as they left the cafe.

Police from the MPS Special Projects Team forced their way into the warehouse on Thursday night and found the cocaine compressed and hidden in boxes alongside real bananas.

Officers say the drugs have a wholesale value of around £7m but would be worth more than £25m on the street.

The four men - aged 48, 46, 39 and 36 - remain in custody. Police say the lorry driver who delivered the shipment was not part of the gang.