CANNABIS worth £850,000 was seized after a dramatic swoop on an industrial estate. Customs and Excise officers struck in an early morning raid on a unit on the Oakhill Trading Estate, off Worsley Road, Walkden. A BEN news team was there to get an exclusive picture of the bust, which netted between three and four hundred kilos of cannabis resin.

Up to 15 undercover officers from the Manchester-based National Investigations Service took part in the operation - codenamed Cubic - which resulted in the arrest of five men.

Senior Customs officers gave the command to "knock" when a British-registered lorry pulled up outside the unit.

The vehicle, which had arrived in Ramsgate at 6am on Thursday, having travelled from the Belgian port of Ostend, was surrounded by unmarked cars.

Three men were arrested at the scene - a HGV driver from Tunbridge Wells, a Liverpool man and another from Wythenshawe. A senior Customs official said that the huge quantity of cannabis had been stashed away in cardboard boxes, among the legitimate load of hundreds of bottles.

Later customs officers made two more arrests at Manchester Airport - a Dutch man who had just arrived on a flight and a Liverpool man who, a customs official said, was "there to meet and greet".

Four of the arrested men were being questioned at the airport today and none have yet been charged.

The fifth man - from Wythenshawe - was released after providing a statement to police.

Meanwhile, plain-clothed officers began a detailed search of the lorry which was later removed from the industrial estate. And a senior Customs and Excise officer said that the cannabis had originated from Holland.

He added: "Although the lorry left the port of Ostend we believe the drugs followed a route from Holland through Belgium and into this country."

Stunned workers from nearby industrial units told how they watched Customs officers swarm around the truck.

One eye witness said: "We wondered what was happening - suddenly all these cars appeared from nowhere.

"Some people were led away and then customs men put rubber gloves on and started to go through the back of the lorry.

"Things were being put into what looked like plastic evidence bags. The industrial unit only seems to be open once every blue moon."

A Customs and Excise spokesman said: "This was an extremely successful operation involving officers from the National Investigation Service which was supported by foreign law enforcement agencies."

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