Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes: Cocaine worth £3.1m washes up on idyllic beach in Cornwall popular with holidaymakers

Police were alerted after a bag containing 40kg of the Class A drug turned up on the beach on Saturday (28 September) at Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes. Pictures taken outside the Schooners bar show officers from Devon and Cornwall Police talking to a member of the public as an RNLI lifeguard watches over the beach, the Daily Mail reports.

Inspector Rachel Manifield, force incident manager at Devon and Cornwall Police told the newspaper: "We are currently carrying out searches along the coast between Padstow and Holywell Bay as part of an ongoing investigation. Members of the public, who we would like to thank for their support, are asked to avoid the area. It is not expected to take a protracted amount of time."

The incident comes after a huge amount of cocaine was seized from two separate boats off the coast of Cornwall last month. At the time, police officers said they believed the groups had been trying to smuggle Class A drugs into the country. There has been no suggestion from police that any of the incidents are related.

The two incidents saw the National Crime Agency (NCA) apprehend a fishing vessel in Newquay on September 13 and a smaller RIB at Sennen in West Cornwall. Officers seized an estimated tonne of cocaine from a vessel named Lilly Lola on the north coast and around 300kg of the drug was taken from the boat at Sennen. Both were unrelated incidents.

The first vessel was stopped at sea by Border Force officers who found a huge volume of cocaine which was being brought into the country. The NCA has said the four men on board were arrested on suspicion of importing class-A drugs.

They were brought into police custody for questioning by NCA investigators and the haul of drugs was seized. They have since been charged with drug offences.