Cocaine worth £50m and weighing 500kg has been discovered hidden among a shipment of tinned tuna that arrived in Essex.

Eight holdalls packed with the drug were found inside a shipping container at the DP World London Gateway Port.

It arrived via Belgium after being imported from Ecuador.

The wholesale value is estimated at £16m, with a street value of more than £50m.

Mark Kennedy, Border Force assistant director at the port, said: "This was a substantial find, the biggest we have made here in the port's short history, and will have significantly disrupted the activity of the criminal parties involved."


Matthew Rivers, from the National Crime Agency's Border Policing Command, said: "The intended destination for this consignment was mainland Europe but it's likely a proportion would still have ended up back in the UK."

He said intercepting the haul would be a blow to serious organised crime gangs who deal with the drug.