Four men arrested after £40m of cocaine found in pub car park

On Saturday the men were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to import Class A drugs after half a tonne of the drug was found outside a village pub.
(National Crime Agency/PA)
PA Media
Pol Allingham5 May 2024

Four men have been arrested after £40 million of cocaine was found in a van in a village pub car park.

Around 500kg of the drug was discovered in the back of a Vauxhall Vivaro in the car park in Lelley, East Yorkshire, the National Crime Agency said.

Officers believe a few hours before the haul was found it had been transferred to shore in a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) travelling from a larger vessel off the Hull coast.

The RHIB was abandoned at Easington Beach, the NCA added.

Working with our law enforcement partners we are determined to do all we can to disrupt criminal activity, and protect the UK’s border security

Alan French

The beach is around 18 miles from the Stags Head Inn in Lelley, where the drugs “with a potential street value of around £40 million” were found.

A 22-year-old from Argyll, a 32-year-old from Oban and a 24-year-old from Campbeltown, all in Scotland, were arrested at 8.30am on Saturday in Lelley, as well as a 39-year-old from Colombia, the NCA added.

Senior investigating officer Alan French said: “This was a significant amount of cocaine and its seizure will be a sizeable blow to the organised crime group which attempted to smuggle it into the UK.

“There’s no doubt these drugs would have been sold into communities around the UK, fuelling further crime and exploitation.

“Working with our law enforcement partners we are determined to do all we can to disrupt criminal activity, and protect the UK’s border security.

“Our investigation continues following these arrests.”

The NCA operation was supported by Humberside Police, Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit and Border Force.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in