UK authorities seize more than two tonnes of cocaine in ‘one of largest' busts
Border Force Maritime director Charlie Eastaugh said on Saturday that the massive haul of 2.4 tonnes of the drug seized at the London Gateway port near the capital was 'one of the largest of its kind'.
UK's Home Office confirmed that the haul, found under containers on a ship arriving from Panama, was the sixth-largest cocaine seizure on record.
Specialist officers had detected the shipment earlier this month after carrying out an intelligence-led operation, moving 37 large containers to get at the stash.
The UK is one of Europe's biggest markets for cocaine, according to the National Crime Agency. The UK government says cocaine-related deaths in England and Wales rose by 31 percent between 2022 and 2023.
On Thursday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the cocaine trade went from strength to strength in 2023, the latest year for which comprehensive data is available.
The Vienna-based agency's annual World Drug Report showed that cocaine was the world's 'fastest-growing illicit drug market', with Colombian production surging as demand for the drug expands in Europe and North and South America.
Around the globe, the estimated number of cocaine users also kept growing, reaching 25 million people in 2023, up from 17 million 10 years earlier, the UNODC said.
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Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Al Jazeera
UK police arrest 522 over support for Palestine Action at London protests
Police in London on Saturday arrested 522 people who were protesting against the United Kingdom's recent decision to ban the group Palestine Action, a tally thought to include the highest-ever recorded at a single protest in the British capital. The Metropolitan Police on Sunday updated its previous arrest tally of 466 and said that all but one of the 522 arrests took place at a protest in central London's Parliament Square and were for displaying placards backing Palestine Action. The other arrest for the same offence took place at nearby Russell Square as thousands rallied at a Palestine Coalition march demonstrating against Israel's war in Gaza, which has killed at least 61,430 people and wounded 153, 213. The Met made 10 further arrests on Saturday, including six for assaults on officers, though none were seriously injured, it added on Sunday. The protests were the latest in a series of rallies denouncing the British government's ban of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 on July 5, days after the group took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.4m) of damage to two aircraft. The group said its activists were responding to the UK's indirect military support for Israel amid the war in Gaza. Huda Ammori, cofounder of Palestine Action, said ahead of Saturday's protests that they would 'go down in our country's history as a momentous act of collective defiance of an unprecedented attack on our fundamental freedoms'. The force said the average age of those arrested on Saturday was 54, with six teenagers, 97 aged in their 70s, and 15 octogenarians. A roughly equal number of men and women were detained. In a statement following the latest mass arrests, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended the government's decision, insisting: 'UK national security and public safety must always be our top priority'. 'The assessments are very clear – this is not a non-violent organisation,' she added. But critics, including the United Nations and groups such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have condemned the government's proscription as legal overreach and a threat to free speech. 'If this was happening in another country, the UK government would be voicing grave concerns about freedom of speech and human rights,' Greenpeace UK's co-executive director Areeba Hamid said on Saturday. She added the government had 'now sunk low enough to turn the Met into thought police, direct action into terrorism'. Police across the UK have made scores of similar arrests since July 5, when being a member of Palestine Action or supporting the group became a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Police announced this week that the first three people had been charged in the English and Welsh criminal justice system with such backing following their arrests at a July 5 demonstration. In its update on Sunday, the Met revealed a further 26 case files following other arrests on that day are due to be submitted to prosecutors 'imminently' and that more would follow related to later protests. It believes that 30 of those held on Saturday had been arrested at previous recent Palestine Action protests. Eighteen people remained in custody by Sunday lunchtime, but were set to be released on bail within hours, the Met added. It noted officers from its counterterrorism command will now 'work to put together the case files required to secure charges against those arrested as part of this operation'. Protesters call for release of Israeli captives Meanwhile, demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza marched in central London on Sunday. The protesters, who planned to march to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's residence in Downing Street for a rally, include Noga Guttman, a cousin of 24-year-old captive Evyatar David, who featured in a video that enraged Israelis when it was released by Hamas last week. The video showed an emaciated David saying he was digging his own grave inside a tunnel in Gaza. In the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, which triggered Israel's war on Gaza, more than 200 people were taken captive. Some 50 of the captives still have not been released. Twenty are thought to be alive. Israel last week announced its intention to seize Gaza City as part of a plan to end the war and bring the captives home. Family members and many international leaders have condemned the plan, saying it would lead to more bloodshed and endanger the captives. 'We are united in one clear and urgent demand: the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,' Stop the Hate, a coalition of groups organising the march, said in a statement. 'Regardless of our diverse political views, this is not a political issue – it is a human one.'
Qatar Tribune
6 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Potential victims of modern slavery in United Kingdom at record high
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Al Jazeera
04-08-2025
- Al Jazeera
Far-right figure Tommy Robinson arrested for train station assault in UK
Police in the United Kingdom have arrested the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson on suspicion of assault, following an attack last month at London's St Pancras station. The far-right campaigner, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was arrested at about 6.30pm (17:30 GMT) on Monday evening at Luton airport, which is located north of the English capital. Robinson had just landed there on a flight from the Portuguese city of Faro. His detention comes a week on from the alleged assault at one of London's main railway terminals. 'The man had been wanted for questioning after leaving the country to Tenerife in the early hours of 29 July following the incident at St Pancras,' the British Transport Police (BTP) said on Monday evening. He will now be questioned in custody 'on suspicion of… grievous bodily harm', the BTP added. Although the statement did not directly name Robinson, he was shown in a video of the incident that was widely circulated online. In the footage, the former founder of the far-right English Defence League is seen walking near a motionless man, claiming to have acted in self-defence. The other man was taken to hospital with serious injuries, which the police said were 'not thought to be life threatening'. Robinson has numerous convictions for public order and contempt offences. In May, he was released from a prison in Buckinghamshire four months early, after the high court cut his 18-month sentence. He was imprisoned in October 2024 for contempt of court after admitting that he had flouted an injunction that prevented him from repeating false claims about a Syrian schoolboy. The injunction came into force after the far-right activist lost a libel case against Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian refugee whom Robinson was judged to have defamed. Robinson has been described by the advocacy group Hope Not Hate as 'the UK's most notorious far-right extremist'. Earlier this year, tech billionaire and former adviser to United States President Donald Trump, Elon Musk called for Robinson to be freed from a UK prison where he was held at the time, and where he is likely to be returning after his latest arrest.
