A dog walker has revealed the astonishing moment she and her pet found £50m worth of cocaine washed up on a beach.
Valerie McGee, 70, was out with Irish setter Rudey when the hound sniffed out several sports bags sitting on the shore.
The dog then cocked his leg and urinated on the class A haul before Valerie realised what they’d stumbled upon.
Valerie said: “Rudey is very inquisitive and did what he always does when he sees something and sniffed the bags before cocking his leg to mark his territory.
“It crossed my mind it might be something illegal, although I did not look inside as I thought it would be best for the authorities to do that.
“Afterwards when I spoke to my son he told me I watch too many episodes of The Bill but you just recognise these things.”
Inside the usual discovery on the beach at Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk, was an enormous amount of cocaine.
A second stash was later found along the coast at Caister, Norfolk, with the total weight of the two discoveries thought to be around 360kg.
The Class A drug has a street value of more than £50 million and is thought to be the largest find in recent years.
Speaking of the find last Thursday (09/02) retired psychotherapist Valerie said: “I saw 10 or so sports bags tied together with plastic containers, which seemed to me would have been used as floats.
“It certainly was an unusual thing to find on the beach here and I might have been the first person to find the bags but I am unsure for certain.
“As I didn’t have my phone on me I carried on walking and when I came home I noticed police walking past my window towards the beach – before I had the chance to report anything.”
The matter has now been passed to the National Crime Agency (NCA) who are trying to establish how the drugs got there.
Matthew Rivers, from the NCA’s border investigation team, said: “We are now working with Border Force, the Coastguard Agency and Norfolk Police to try and establish how the bags ended up where they did, however it is extremely unlikely that this was their intended destination.
“This is obviously a substantial seizure of class A drugs, and its loss will represent a major blow to the organised criminals involved.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact Norfolk Constabulary on 101.