To this end, assistance has been sought from Scotland Yard in retrieving the serial number on the containers which would reveal who the exporter is, according to a source.

The lumber was transported to the United Kingdom aboard the MV` EWL Venezuela. The vessel is not registered here, but was utilized by a Guyanese shipping company to transport locally-produced lumber for the dealer.

The Chronicle understands that the vessel arrived in the country Monday morning.

The discovery of the cocaine, which fetches a street value of some 9 million pounds sterling, resulted from a joint effort by Gwent Police Force, Customs and Excise and the National Crime Squad.

Eight persons, including a Jamaican, arrested in connection with the alleged cocaine smuggling, made an initial court appearance in the Caarphilly Magistrate’s Court Monday and have been remanded to prison.

They are to reappear in Court on Monday next.

A London newspaper, The South Wales Argus News, in a report on the drug bust, said it was the biggest drug haul in the history of Gwent’s Police Force after the raid in Newport.

The newspaper said the massive haul was the result of some three months of painstaking work by Gwent police, Customs and Excise and the National Crime Squad in a joint operation.

Superintendent Nigel Russell, who led the Gwent police operation, said “the drugs were concealed in hardwood shipped from the Caribbean to Felixstown - they were then transported by road to Newport.”

A spokesperson for Customs said the illicit drug arrived at Felixstowe on May 29, and was concealed in a consignment of lumber that had arrived from Guyana.

The shipping of cocaine in lumber from wharves is being viewed as a new dimension, as to date the only concealed marijuana were discovered.