A 500 kg consignment of herbal cannabis that arrived at Tilbury Docks on 9 June 2004 aboard a ship from South Africa became the starting point for the Ealing Operation Bandage investigation.[1] Borough officers placed business premises in Ealing, where the consignment had been destined, together with individuals connected to it, under covert surveillance with help from the local community.[1] Detectives later said the seizure of the cannabis had led them to the wider network.[2]
The intelligence-led operation began on 9 June 2004 with the Ealing Police Crime Squad and Intelligence Unit.[1] A 33-year-old woman from Islington was arrested at her home in June after using a series of false identities, and further inquiries pointed the Operation Bandage team to a storage unit in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, under her control.[1] A search there recovered 180 suspected drug packages, of which 168 were believed to be 1 kg amounts of cocaine while the remaining packages were still to be tested.[1][2]
Scotland Yard said the haul of 180 packages weighing 168 kg was its largest ever cocaine seizure, found in a storage-unit crate in Aylesbury after the Tilbury cannabis seizure.[2] Police believed both the cannabis and the cocaine had arrived in Britain by ship from South Africa and were bound for London and the Home Counties, with the cocaine intended for the crack market.[2] Officers put the combined street value of the cannabis and cocaine at about 10 million pounds.[1][2]
The woman and a 41-year-old man from Stoke Newington arrested during July were both charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis, the man on 26 July 2004.[1][2] The reports give no full names for either defendant and no later court outcome for the charges.[1][2]
