Police copied a tactic used by terrorists and criminals to smash their way into the luxury home of the suspected boss of a large crime syndicate yesterday, writes Sean O'Neill.

Officers used a mechanical digger in a dawn raid to knock down the fortified perimeter walls around the home in West London of a man alleged to be the kingpin of a £100 million cocaine empire. A 40-year-old man and his son were arrested and vehicles, including a Porsche four-wheel drive and two Mercedes saloons were seized.

Diggers have been used previously as battering rams by armed robbers, who tried to steal a precious gem from the Millennium Dome, and an IRA gang, which was ambushed when it tried to attack a police station in Northern Ireland.

Detective Superintendent Steven Richardson defended the use of the digger, which was rammed into the property in Hillingdon at about 5am by a police driving instructor. Mr Richardson said that the success of the raid depended on immediate access to the property and an element of surprise.

He said: “We wanted to go into properties as quickly as possible to ensure no evidence was destroyed. If it takes us 15 to 20 minutes to get into a property, you can imagine how computer hard drives and other evidence could be wiped.”

The raid was one of 30 that were executed simultaneously at homes and businesses across London and the Home Counties. Detectives said that the operation, which involved more than 500 officers, focused on one of the biggest cocaine and cannabis rings in Britain. More than 20 people were arrested.

The operation came after more than six months of surveillance and information-gathering by the specialist intelligence section at Scotland Yard.

Police said that several well-established gangs had colluded in creating a clearing house to launder drug profits. Detectives said that some of the members had lifestyles similar to those of the highest-paid Premier League footballers, driving sports cars, frequenting the best restaurants in London and taking holidays around the world.

Mr Richardson, the controller of the police operation, said that the raids were the final blow to dismantle the network. He said that more than 20 people had been arrested before the raids, causing chaos within the gang.

Police have also seized almost £3 million in cash, 70kg (155lb) of cocaine with a street value of £500,000 and four guns, including one with a silencer.

Mr Richardson said that gang members had laundered more than £100 million of drug money through a network of foreign exchange bureaux and other financial businesses. They used a minicab firm operating from a shabby office as the focal point of the money-laundering operation — passing as much as £4 million per week through the business accounts.

The laundering mechanism became essential because the success of the gangs created a problem by forcing them to handle large quantities of money in small denomination notes.

A crucial step in laundering the money was to convert it into €500 (£375) notes — the highest-value banknote in the world. The money was instantly more easy to transport and was normally taken overseas to be lodged in bank accounts in the euro-zone or invested in property.

Police refused to say where the cocaine and cannabis had been imported from but confirmed that the drugs were sold across Britain. While the raids took place police moved to freeze bank accounts and access to properties across mainland Europe. Legal steps will be taken to confiscate suspected criminal assets.

Among those arrested were men with British, Israeli, Iraqi, Egyptian and Irish backgrounds. All of the gang were resident in England. Officers recovered a substantial quantity of what they believe is cocaine, money and several firearms, including an antique handgun.

Mr Richardson said: “The operation has been hugely successful. We have targeted the key players in a serious and organised criminal network culminating in a huge blow to the illegal drugs industry in the UK.

“These criminals have been living the lives of wealthy businessmen through criminal activity and we have put a stop to this. We believe this network has been supplying drugs around the country, earning millions of pounds every week.”

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