Two men from Eindhoven have been arrested after attempting to smuggle drugs into England by helicopter, Dutch police said at the weekend.

The men were picked up by British police after bags stuffed with 40 kilos of cocaine and 60 kilos of heroin were thrown out of the helicopter in the English countryside, according to a Dutch police statement.

A 38-year-old English man from London was also arrested. According to British press reports, he and the drugs were in a car when the arrest was made.

The helicopter was found at the Redhill Aerodrome in nearby Surrey and impounded as part of the operation. The Dutchmen, aged 26 and 27, were also arrested.

Mirror

Dutch police raided the homes of the two men and found what they said was a ‘cocaine laboratory’ in one property, hidden behind a mirror in a small gym. A gun and €16,000 in cash were taken from the second house.

Last December, three Dutch nationals who used second-hand ambulances to smuggle drugs worth €2bn into Britain were jailed for up to 28 years by a court in Birmingham.

The gang were picked up in June after an investigation lasting several months. One ambulance was found to contain 270 kilos of cocaine, heroine and amphetamines with a street value of some €10m.