Nearly $100 Million in Cocaine Found Hidden in Banana Shipment at U.K. Port

Border Force officers in England made one of the country's largest drug seizures of the year when they opened a shipping container at Southampton Docks and found something unexpected among the pallets of bananas.

More than 2,000 pounds — approximately one ton — of cocaine was packed inside the container, which had sailed from Nicaragua via Panama before arriving at the port. The drugs carried a street value of £75 million, roughly $98.9 million.

The Arrests

Three men have been charged in connection with the seizure. Daniel Dumitru, 37, of the West Midlands, and Andrew Smyth, 46, of Merseyside, were the first to face charges, appearing at Southampton Magistrates' Court on March 19. A third man, Joshua Berry, 28, of Hampshire, was subsequently charged with importing a Class A drug and the production of Class B drugs. Berry appeared in court on March 28.

All three have been remanded in custody. They were scheduled to appear before Southampton Crown Court on April 17. If convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of life in prison under U.K. sentencing guidelines.

What Investigators Said

The U.K. National Crime Agency has been leading the investigation in partnership with Border Force. NCA Branch Commander Saju Sasikumar described the scale of the operation in a statement following the arrests.

"This is a massive amount of cocaine which was destined for the streets of the U.K.," Sasikumar said. "Seizing these drugs deprives the crime group behind the importation of huge profits that cannot be ploughed back into further offending."

Not the First Time

The banana shipment method is not new, and the pattern is well established enough that port authorities across Europe have been watching for it.

In February 2024, another Southampton Docks shipment of bananas was found to contain more than 12,500 pounds of cocaine — at the time, the largest single seizure of illicit drugs ever recorded in the U.K. Greek police seized nearly 600 pounds of cocaine inside a banana shipment in August 2025. Russian authorities reported seizing 1,800 pounds hidden under bananas in July of that year. In May, Norwegian workers at a fruit distributor discovered more than 320 pounds of cocaine tucked inside a banana shipment.

The use of banana containers is deliberate. The fruit travels in refrigerated, high-volume shipments that move through ports quickly, and the sheer quantity of product in any given container creates room to conceal large amounts of contraband. The strong smell of the ripening fruit has also historically complicated detection.

The Broader Picture

The Southampton seizure is part of a broader pattern of large-scale cocaine trafficking into the U.K. and Europe. The NCA has described the criminal network behind this particular haul as sophisticated and well-resourced, though details about the organization behind the shipment have not been made public.

The investigation is ongoing.

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