A cocaine haul worth £80 million was recovered by police after the driver of the lorry it was hidden in stopped to buy a cup of tea from a roadside burger van.

Witnesses at the layby in Northampton then saw a grey Transit van pull up, before a group of men removed large, wrapped packages from the lorry before fleeing the scene.

The container was supposed to include 29 pallets of steel furniture parts. It had been sealed before it left Mexico in September 2021.

Instead, officers found seven holdalls containing cocaine inside the lorry.

Within two hours, Northamptonshire Police located the Transit van and recovered a further 11 holdalls containing drugs.

In total, 18 holdalls containing 78kg of the class A drug, with a street value of more than £80 million, were seized on 26 November 2021.

The discovery prompted a two-year investigation by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police , who unravelled the gang’s movements.

Financial records showed the smugglers had arrived in Ipswich on the same day…