UK authorities seize more than two tonnes of cocaine in ‘one of largest’ busts

United Nations study says planetary cocaine commercialized thriving, with 25 cardinal users astir the satellite successful 2023.

Border authorities successful United Kingdom person seized cocaine with a thoroughfare worth of $132m from a vessel arriving from Panama.

Border Force Maritime manager Charlie Eastaugh said connected Saturday that the monolithic haul of 2.4 tonnes of the cause seized astatine the London Gateway larboard adjacent the superior was “one of the largest of its kind”.

UK’s Home Office confirmed that the haul, recovered nether containers connected a vessel arriving from Panama, was the sixth-largest cocaine seizure connected record.

Specialist officers had detected the shipment earlier this period aft carrying retired an intelligence-led operation, moving 37 ample containers to get astatine the stash.

The UK is 1 of Europe’s biggest markets for cocaine, according to the National Crime Agency. The UK authorities says cocaine-related deaths successful England and Wales roseate by 31 percent betwixt 2022 and 2023.

On Thursday, the United Nations Office connected Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the cocaine commercialized went from spot to spot successful 2023, the latest twelvemonth for which broad information is available.

The Vienna-based agency’s yearly World Drug Report showed that cocaine was the world’s “fastest-growing illicit cause market”, with Colombian accumulation surging arsenic request for the cause expands successful Europe and North and South America.

Around the globe, the estimated fig of cocaine users besides kept growing, reaching 25 cardinal radical successful 2023, up from 17 cardinal 10 years earlier, the UNODC said.