A south Essex man was today appearing in court after £100 million of cocaine was found in a lock-up garage in Leigh.

Roger Newton has been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine after the raid by customs officers which netted one of the biggest drugs hauls the country has ever seen.

Half a tonne of high quality cocaine, worth up to £100 million if cut up and sold on the streets, was discovered in a lock-up garage behind a block of flats, Hampton Court, in Lymington Avenue.

Newton, who is married and believed to be in his 40s, of The Ridgeway, Chalkwell, was today appearing with eight co-defendants at the City of London Magistrates Court.

Residents were shocked by the raid which has rocked their quiet community and were surprised to hear of Mr Newton's arrest.

The arrests and drugs seizure followed a two-year surveillance operation by officers from the elite Customs and Excise National Investigation Service.

Investigators followed the consignment of cocaine to the Lymington Avenue lock-up after it was brought into Britain by boat.

At the same time as the drugs bust, 150 customs officers carried out a series of dawn raids across the South East, including addresses in Chalkwell, west London, Surrey and west Sussex.

Thirteen people, including two Brazilians, were arrested and 10 have been charged with smuggling the massive consignment of cocaine into this country.

A Brazilian man was intercepted at Heathrow Airport as he was about to board a plane bound for Brazil.

Customs officers allegedly found $32,000, about £20,000, stuffed into his underpants. Another man arrested was carrying £200,000 on him.

A customs spokesman said this was the biggest drugs haul in Britain for several years.

He claimed the raids had seriously disrupted a major trafficking organisation responsible for smuggling cocaine from South America to the rest of the world.

The spokesman said: "It's one of the largest seizures in the last two or three years and will have a significant impact upon the availability of cocaine in the UK."

The ten people charged with conspiring to import cocaine are: Roger Newton, of The Ridgeway, Chalkwell; Brian Wright, of Weybridge, Surrey; John Gurney, of Marbella, Spain; Oiones Defreitas, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Michael O'Connor, of Fulham, west London; Paul Shannon, of Wembley, Middlesex; Liliana Uribe, of Earls Court, London; Ronald Soares, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Barry Fennell, of Fulham, west London; Ian Kiernan, of Hampton Hill, London.

Seized - the drugs were found in sports bags hidden at the back of the lock-up

(Right) Hidden haul - the lock-up, centre, where customs officers found £100 million of cocaine

Picture: JON COATES

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