A major crime gang has been smashed after police made the biggest ever seizure of cocaine in Northern Ireland, it was claimed today.
Loyalist paramilitaries headed the outfit blamed for shipping in drugs from Europe worth potentially £1 million sterling on the streets, security sources said.
As police questioned one man about the haul, detectives were set to begin a financial investigation into the assets of all the suspects.
One source close to the investigation said: "These people will have to justify everything they own. If they are living in monster houses we want to know how they can legitimately afford them. By the time this is over we hope to have put them out of business."
The cocaine was found yesterday during searches in Lisburn, Co Antrim, and Lurgan, Co Armagh, as part of a police crackdown on serious and organised crime in the mid-Ulster area.
Detectives believe the drugs came into Northern Ireland from either Holland or Belgium. Around half a dozen men are thought to have been involved, with the bosses drawn from the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
PA