article_snippet: 37 scheme worked, the country could have been flooded with the illegal deadly drug, Southwark Crown Court was told.
article_snippet: Officers were watching as the bananas and drugs were dropped off at the warehouse and placed within the ripening room.
article_snippet: the consignment of drugs was part of a wider conspiracy to import large shipments of drugs into the United Kingdom using this and other methods of secretion.'
article_snippet: The high-grade cocaine was 91 per cent pure and was to be cut with other substances before The high-grade cocaine reached street level where the purity can be as low as one to 15 per cent.
article_snippet: The form of the cocaine imported, namely in plastic bananas, made it plain the sophisticated and ingenious method of just how it was brought into the country and therefore the levels of planning involved.'
article_snippet: The operation required trusted, informed and capable agents in the UK. '
article_snippet: She commended the work of police officers who worked hard to stop a smuggling ring.
article_snippet: She said: 'The seizure was the culmination of a careful, committed police operation. '
article_snippet: There clearly had been dummy runs at least, if not actual runs, and very significant imports would have continued had the police not stopped actual runs.'