Around 2.4 tonnes of cocaine has been seized from a freighter in a joint operation by UK and French crime agencies.

Acting on intelligence, the Moldovan flagged MV Carib Palm was intercepted in the Eastern Channel last Thursday.

It had sailed from Colombia and was on its way to Gdansk in Poland when it was stopped off the south coast.

The ship was taken to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer where it was searched by French Customs. The cocaine seizure is believed to be one of the biggest ever hauls for France.

In the UK the drugs would have had a wholesale value of around £90 million, but if cut and sold at street level purity the haul could have been worth more than £350 million.

The 12 crew members, who were Georgian, Turkish and Ukrainian, were arrested and now face prosecution in France.

Tom Dowdall, Head of the NCA’s Border Policing Command, said: “The sheer scale of this seizure makes it likely that a large amount of the seized drugs would have ended up being sold on the streets of the UK.

“This operation is an excellent example of how the NCA works with international partners to target and disrupt the organised crime groups involved in trafficking cocaine to Europe and the UK.”