Six arrested in drug smuggling swoop

Police found drugs and ammunition during the raids in Bristol

Six people have been arrested in Bristol as part of an international effort to break a drug smuggling ring.

Officers searched seven addresses and five cars in the city on Friday in an operation which yielded crack cocaine with a street value of £75,000, heroin and firearms ammunition.

Detectives were led to the addresses in Speedwell, Cadbury Heath and Broomhill by US customs officials in Miami.

They had alerted customs officers to packages of cocaine from Jamaica bound for Bristol.

Jamaican police

The parcels were allowed to continue to Heathrow Airport where officers from Avon and Somerset's Operation Atrium team intercepted them.

The six people arrested in Bristol were being questioned at police stations in the city.

Inspector Paul Appleton said: "This has been an operation involving four agencies in three different countries across the Atlantic.

"As well as customs in Miami and in this country we have also been involved with the Jamaican Police Service during this operation.

"This has removed a considerable amount of cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin which would have been bound for the streets of Bristol as well as potentially lethal firearms ammunition."