Cocaine in Bananas
Police arrested four men after cocaine was found hidden in the fake bananas. AFP / Getty Images

Four men have been arrested after £25 million worth of cocaine was found hidden inside fake plastic bananas.

The illicit haul was discovered in the bananas which were brought to the UK from Colombia.

In a police a surveillance operation, the stash which weighed 150kg (23st), was followed from Dover to a trading estate in Hartlip, Kent.

A man was seen unloading the shipment and locking up the warehouse.

Detectives kept watch over the warehouse, while other officers followed three Colombian men to an internet cafe in Stockwell, south London, where they are believed to have picked up email instructions relating to the drugs.

The men from Lambeth and Kent were arrested as they left the cafe.

After forcing their way into the warehouse police found the cocaine compressed and hidden in boxes alongside real bananas.

Officers said the drugs have a wholesale value of around £7m but would be worth more than £25m on the street.

The four men - aged 48, 46, 39 and 36 - remain in custody. Police have confirmed that the lorry driver who delivered the shipment was not part of the drug smuggling gang.