London police arrested 12 men today on suspicion of being part of international drugs networks in Britain and Colombia accused of trafficking cocaine with a street value of £60 million pounds.
More than 100 officers conducted dawn raids on 19 houses across the capital and the neighbouring county of Kent, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
The arrests were part of an investigation - codenamed operation Alpington - into a major Columbian criminal network believed to have been supplying cocaine to two London-based criminal networks since 1998.
The were also linked to an earlier investigation, operation Anuric, into a mainly Colombian gang which ran the biggest cocaine and money-laundering ring ever uncovered in Britain.
Police said the network was believed to be responsible for supplying up to 530kg of cocaine, the intended import of a further 668kg.
"The street value of the cocaine they have trafficked is estimated to be worth 60 million pounds," the statement said.