£8m cocaine sting

Detectives today made London's biggest cocaine bust as they smashed an £8million drug-smuggling ring.

Officers swooped on a flat in Islington and arrested a woman after seizing 168kg of the drug, hidden in shipping crates at a warehouse.

The crates are believed to have arrived in cargo at Tilbury Docks from South Africa. Detectives are also investigating possible links with cocaine cartels in South America.

The inquiry, codenamed Operation Bandage, was carried out by Ealing Police Crime Squad after customs officers at Tilbury found £2 million worth of cannabis on a ship which had arrived from South Africa.

Undercover police carried out surveillance on a business in Ealing, where the original consignment was destined. This led to the arrest of the 33-year-old woman in Islington.

Detective Inspector Mick O'Connell, who led the inquiry, said: "This woman had used a number of false identities."

Today neighbours of the woman told how she was constantly short of money and had only the most basic furnishings in her two-room apartment.

The landlord of the flat, which is close to Upper Street, said: "I was very surprised to hear of the woman's arrest. She paid £100 a week rent and maintained very basic furnishings in her flat. She wore cheap clothes and rode around on a pushbike.

"She was always very short of cash. She once inquired whether she could buy the flat from me, but did not have enough money." The woman told her landlord she worked as a manager in a bar in Notting Hill in the evenings. He said: "She was a quiet, South African girl who had been renting the flat from me for just over a year," he said.

"The only other person I saw at the flat was her boyfriend, who was distinctive because he had lost one eye in a surfing accident.

"He came round enquiring about her and was very shocked when we said she had been arrested in a drugs raid."

Further inquiries led officers to a warehouse in Aylesbury where they found 168 one-kilo packages of cocaine.

Police are still investigating the source of the drugs and the middle-market dealers involved in their supply throughout London and the Home Counties.

Officers believe the scale of the seizure will have a major impact on London's cocaine business.

Mr O'Connell said: "This is a highly significant seizure. We have identified a previously unknown criminal organisation trafficking significant amounts of Class A and Class C drugs into the UK.

"These drugs were clearly destined for local social consumption in London and the Home Counties and the seizure will certainly have an impact on the cocaine market in London." The haul included cocaine with a street value of £8 million, the largest haul the Met has recorded since detailed records on seizures started 10 years ago.

Detectives believe the drugs would have flooded onto the streets of London and the Home Counties and would have become part of the crack cocaine market.

Commander Jim Smith said: "This is a very significant seizure and a fantastic success."