UK police hold 12 over cocaine smuggling

Police have arrested 12 men suspected of being involved in international drug trafficking networks in Britain and Colombia.

Police have arrested 12 men suspected of being involved in international drug trafficking networks in Britain and Colombia.

More than 100 officers conducted a series of "pre-planned, synchronised" dawn raids on 19 houses across London and Kent, the Metropolitan police said in a statement.

"Today's arrests are the culmination of a two-year intelligence-led operation ... into three criminal networks, one Colombian, and two London-based," the statement said.

The investigation is understood to be a spin-off from Operation Anuric — an investigation into a massive international drug smuggling empire, believed to have been one of the biggest ever to have operated in Britain.

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Over the course of a decade that cartel was suspected of smuggling hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the UK.