A third man has been arrested after border force officers found almost a quarter of a tonne of cocaine on a bus at Dover Docks.
National Crime Agency (NCA) officers arrested a 45-year-old man as he stepped off a flight from Spain at Glasgow Prestwick Airport on Saturday (October 9).
He was taken to Carlisle police station where he was questioned by investigators, before being released under investigation.
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The arrest forms part of an ongoing investigation, which has already seen two men from the north west jailed for more than 30 years.
Driver Christopher Bullows and his passenger Mark Tucker were arrested after their coach was stopped at the border in September last year.
When officers searched the bus they found around 243 kilograms of cocaine, which had a street value of around £19.4 million, hidden in a specially constructed wastewater tank.
NCA branch commander Mark McCormack said: “This was a significant amount of cocaine and our investigation into this smuggling attempt continues.
“Drugs fuel violence and exploitation in our communities, and those involved in smuggling into the UK play a key role in that chain of criminality.
"We will do all we can to disrupt and dismantle the organised crime groups involved.”
A court heard earlier this year that Bullows, 50, of Lord Street, St Helens, claimed he had taken the coach to Belgium so that the air conditioning system, which was under warranty there, could be repaired.
He told NCA investigators that Tucker, 54, of Longshaw Street, Blackburn, was a friend and had come along ‘for the jolly’.
Inquiries showed that the air conditioning had been mended in the UK just months before the trip and the pair were subsequently charged with attempting to import class A drugs.
Bullows pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court in April, while Tucker was convicted by a jury in May following a five-day trial.
In July, Tucker was jailed for 16 years and Bullows for 14 years and four months.
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