The drug trade is worth many many billions of pounds, so it is no surprise that the biggest drug busts in history are worth a fair few bob.

There will always be those who are willing to produce, sell, and traffic drugs due to the huge sums of money involved but the authorities have never been more efficient in identifying trafficking schemes and making major busts.

Here are some of the biggest drug busts ever:

Long Island Cocaine Bust (1991)

Around 5 tonnes of cocaine was recovered in a drug bust carried out in 1991 in Long Island. A major police operation involving multiple planes, helicopters, and boats descended on a fishing vessel and uncovered a cache of drugs worth a whopping $850m+ in todays money.

The exact origin of the drugs was never located but it is though to have been purchased from a cartel in Mexico and trafficked by a major crime family in New York.

Peru Cocaine bust (1995)

You though that 5 tonnes was a lot of cocaine, try 12 tonnes. This is the amount that was seized by the U.S coast guard all the way back in 1995 from a boat smuggling the drugs from the coast of Peru.

The smugglers were made up of a group of Columbians who were taken back to the US to face trafficking charges in the federal court.

Hayward California Heroin bust (1991)

1991 was a popular year for drug busts and in May of the year 3 men who had been under observation for a while were apprehended in a warehouse in California under the suspicion of drug smuggling.

Under the guise of trading pots from China, the group had instead been bringing in large amount of heroin from Thailand. As the group had been suspected of heroin trafficking for some time, it was no surprise to the drug enforcers on the scene to discover the drug in boxes located inside the warehouse. What was a surprise was that over 480kg of white heroin was discovered, making this one of the biggest heroin busts in history.

What to do if you have been accused of a drug related crime

If you have been accused of a drug offence of any kind, probably nothing quite as serious as the cases mentioned above, you need to find yourself a good drug lawyer Edinburgh immediately.

No matter if you are accused of possession, intent to supply, trafficking, or any other drug related offence, the punishments can be pretty serious and it isn’t worth taking any risks with your future.

The severity of the sentences you could face will depend on the class of drug involved, the amount of drugs involved, and how involved you were in the incident. Even if you know yourself to be completely innocent it is important to get a good lawyer to help you prove it.

Do not speak to the police without a lawyer present and ask for their advice throughout the entire process.