A HAUL of cocaine with a street value of £8million has been found in a lorry full of Christmas trees.

Border Force officers found a total of 54kg of cocaine on board the lorry at Harwich International Port on Monday.

Border Force regional director Phillip Holliday said: “By making this seizure, worth millions of pounds, Border Force officers have prevented a substantial quantity of dangerous class A drugs from ending up on the streets of the UK and put a serious dent in the profits of the international criminal networks involved in this type of smuggling."

A 27-year-old Romanian man, Filip Adrian Tunea, is due to appear at Chelmsford Crown Court on February 2 charged with importing a class A drug.