€50m worth of cocaine has been discovered hidden in a shipment of bananas, following a joint operation between the British National Crime Agency and gardaí.

The 300kg of the Class A drug was discovered following a search of the cargo vessel Star Stratos at Portsmouth, Hampshire. The ship had travelled from Colombia.

Investigations are continuing after Monday's operation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and UK Border Force, who were working with gardaí.

Tom Dowdall, deputy director of the NCA's border policing command, said: "Working with our law enforcement partners in the UK and Ireland we have successfully prevented a huge quantity of what is likely to be very high purity cocaine reaching our streets.

"This seizure once again demonstrates the international reach of the NCA and the impact we are having on the criminal networks involved in drug trafficking."

In September, around a tonne of cocaine was seized by Ireland's Naval Service from the yacht Makayabella around 480km off the southwest coast of Ireland in a joint operation with the NCA