Two Dorset men have been arrested over a half-tonne haul of cocaine worth £40m was seized on a west Sussex beach.

The men were arrested as part of an operation that saw six men arrested in locations across England in a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

One of the men, aged 45, was in arrested in Bournemouth, whilst the second man from Dorset was a 41-year-old from Poole.

Both men were arrested on Tuesday, October 8.

NCA officers also arrested a man, aged 38, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and a man, aged 36, in Tilbury in Essex yesterday.

As part of the operation, a 39-year-old man was arrested at Luton Airport earlier today (Wednesday, October 9), and another 39-year-old was arrested in Liverpool on Monday, October 7.

On August 19 this year officers recovered a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) at Medmerry Beach, near Selsey, West Sussex.

It contained 500kg of cocaine.

This week’s arrests take the total arrested in connection to the cocaine importation to 12.

All have been released on bail.