On Air Now

This is the Coast

Midnight - 6:00am

  • 01723 336444

Now Playing

Bon Jovi

It's My Life

Download

Cocaine worth £80m shipped with kitchenware seized at Essex port by Border Force

Border Force officers have intercepted a huge shipment of cocaine, believed to have a street value of around £80m, at an Essex port.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) stated that it had launched an investigation following the one-tonne seizure at London Gateway Port on Friday.

However, the UK is not believed to have been the end destination for the drugs, with the ship carrying them having been bound for Norway.

The shrink-wrapped drugs were found inside a number of holdalls in a container that had been shipped from Panama along with a "cover load" of ceramics and kitchenware.

"This was a fantastic seizure by our colleagues at Border Force, and taking this amount of cocaine out of circulation will have deprived the organised criminals involved of millions in profits," NCA senior investigating officer Paul Orchard said.

Police seizures of cocaine hit a record high last year, with 23,706 finds logged in the year to March 2025 - up 13% from the previous year.

Read more from Sky News:
Mohamed Salah to leave Liverpool
Transgender girls given deadline to leave Guides

Meanwhile, Border Force and police intercepted drugs on a record-breaking 269,000 occasions, an increase of 24% on the year before.

The discovery follows the recent seizure of 943kg of cocaine from a shipping container at Southampton Docks with an estimated street value of £75m.

Sky News

(c) Sky News 2026: Cocaine worth £80m shipped with kitchenware seized at Essex port by Border Force

Want to See More from This is the Coast?

Click here to set This is the Coast as a preferred source on Google search.

Love living on the Yorkshire Coast? So do we.

This is the Coast is 100% locally owned and operated. We don’t rely on public funding or government grants—we rely on our community.

Producing trusted, fact-checked local news takes time and resources. If you value having a dedicated team of professional journalists fighting for our region, please consider supporting us.

Help keep the Yorkshire Coast informed for the price of a coffee a month.

Support Local Journalism Today

More from National News

Follow Us

Get Our Apps

Our Apps are now available for iOS, Android and Smart Speakers.

  • Available on the App Store
  • Available on Google Play
  • Just ask Amazon Alexa
  • Available on Roku

Today's Weather

  • Scarborough

    Light rain

    High: 14°C | Low: 4°C

  • Filey

    Light rain

    High: 14°C | Low: 4°C

  • Whitby

    Heavy Rain

    High: 14°C | Low: 3°C

  • Bridlington

    Light rain

    High: 15°C | Low: 4°C

  • Hornsea

    Light rain

    High: 15°C | Low: 4°C

  • Driffield

    Light rain

    High: 15°C | Low: 4°C

News