Man charged over £50m cocaine haul

The drugs have an estimated street value of £50m

A man from south Wales is among a group of four men charged with attempting to import one of the largest cocaine hauls ever seized in the UK.

Ian Victor Thornhill, aged 52, of Bridgend, handed himself in at a police station on Saturday.

It followed the arrest of three other men on Friday, after Customs and Excise officers seized 800 kilograms of the class A drug.

The haul has a street value estimated at more than £50m.

Ground nuts

The drugs were found hidden in a cargo of ground nuts in a lorry at the Winchester service station on the M3 in Hampshire.

Two men from London were arrested at the service station, and another - Mr Thornhill's younger brother Stuart - was arrested near Newbury.

All four men appeared at Basingstoke Magistrates Court on Monday - they have been remanded in custody to appear on 19 May.

They are all charged with attempting to import a Class A drug.

Arrests

The first arrests were made when officers from Thames Valley and Hampshire police forces secured the area around Winchester service station.

Customs officers arrested Patrick Fitzgerald and Andrew Barry Hunter, both from London.

Stuart Thornhill was arrested later on Friday in Chaddleworth, Oxfordshire.

Ian Thornhill handed himself in at Winchester police station on Saturday morning.

A customs spokesperson said the haul was one of the largest ever seized in the UK.

She added: "This is a huge seizure, coming only the day after three and a half tonnes of cocaine was seized in the mid-Atlantic.

"It's important to realise that these drugs were already in the country."