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Border Force officials found nearly a ton - 943kg - of the drug stashed in the fruit cargo

Two men have been charged after £75million-worth of cocaine was found hidden in pallets of bananas.

Border Force officials found nearly a ton - 943kg - of the drug stashed in the fruit cargo, which arrived in Southampton Docks from Nicaragua.

Images released by the National Crime Agency show the drugs packaged inside black plastic and stacked in bricks beside the bananas. The agency previously warned cocaine production in Colombia is at record levels, with most illegal drugs being manufactured overseas and smuggled into the UK.

Earlier this week NCA director-general Graeme Biggar told how criminals are getting more inventive when smuggling illicit substances around the world. He said said cocaine is being altered at a molecular level to bond with other materials like charcoal, glue or plastic before being extracted at the other end.

Criminals have been known to smuggle the substance by painting it onto broom handles and mixing it into bottles of red wine. Illegal drugs also enter Britain via yachts and small boats, light aircraft, vehicle traffic from continental Europe, airline passengers and the post.

In its annual National Strategic Assessment, the NCA found the threat from serious and organised crime increased last year, with drugs remaining the biggest driver in the UK. Synthetic opioids pose one of the biggest risks, with nitazenes linked to an 1,000 deaths since first appearing at scale in the country in June 2023.

Daniel Dumitru, 37, of Smethwick, West Mids, and Andrew Smyth, 46, of Prenton, Merseyside, have been charged with importing the Class A substance. The two men were due to appear at Southampton Magistrates' Court on Thursday.