Not To Be Sniffed At!

[over_the_hill]

But someone has obviously slipped up

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-68...

"Cocaine worth £450m found in cargo of bananas at Southampton Port"

5.7 tonnes.

In the grand scheme of things will this really make a difference or is it just a drop in the ocean.

[Quhet]

Christ, that's a hell of a lot of drugs.

The article doesn't say how/why it was uncovered - just a lucky spot check or a tip off I wonder? Pretty unlucky for the gangs involved but I wonder how much more they've got in transit at any one time?

[s1962a]

Watching Narcos type series, don't they assume a certain percentage will get caught anyway? Imagine how much is actually getting through.

[119]

"recent work had been undertaken to "tighten security at ports""

No it hasn't, it was a tip off.

[jfdi]

What would be the actual value of the drugs, how much will the bust have cost the importer? Anyone in the trade on PH know about these things?
They always quote these things as "street value" but I'm sure that will be very different to what the importer has lost.

[Tango13]

119 said:

"recent work had been undertaken to "tighten security at ports""

No it hasn't, it was a tip off.

Absolutely this

Wouldn't surprise me if it was a rival drugs gang that did the tipping off just to put the competition out of business.

[Ean218]

over_the_hill said:

"Cocaine worth £450m found in cargo of bananas at Southampton Port"

5.7 tonnes.

In the grand scheme of things will this really make a difference or is it just a drop in the ocean.

Border force chap on the radio this morning said the best guess seems to be that the UK consumes approx 100 tonnes pa.

This shipment was however destined for Hamburg, presumably Europe as a whole consumes much more, so just a drop in the ocean.

[KarlMac]

Quhet said:

Christ, that's a hell of a lot of drugs.

The article doesn't say how/why it was uncovered - just a lucky spot check or a tip off I wonder? Pretty unlucky for the gangs involved but I wonder how much more they've got in transit at any one time?

There’s been some fairly major arrests recently, one of the bigger county lines gangs near me has just hand its ringleaders pinched. If I was guessing there’s probably some intelligence learnt from these types of arrests, be that from cooperation or evidence recovered.

[twing]

jfdi said:

What would be the actual value of the drugs, how much will the bust have cost the importer? Anyone in the trade on PH know about these things?
They always quote these things as "street value" but I'm sure that will be very different to what the importer has lost.

James English had Andrew Pritchard on his podcast recently, well worth a listen