Seventeen gang members have been jailed for 117 years after undercover British policemen carried out the country’s biggest land based cocaine seizure in a dramatic swoop.

Helicopter footage shows the moment drug kingpin, Jamie Simpson, 31, was arrested on the motorway near Knutsford, Cheshire after police vehicles surrounded his Ford Transit.

Officers found 186 kilograms of high purity cocaine worth an estimated £20million hidden under the floor of the van as well as some stuffed inside boxes and concealed in the passenger seat.

The raid was part of a covert police investigation called Operation Dreadnought aimed at fishing out Warrington based organized crime groups led by Simpson and one Jamie Oldroyd.

Cheshire Police said the ‘gangster lifestyles’ led by the two ringleaders and gang members led to their arrests as they flaunted their wealth.