TWO men have been charged after police seized cocaine believed to have a street value of £2m.
Acting on a tip, officers from Northumbria Police's crime operations team stopped two vehicles on the A690 Durham to Sunderland road, last Wednesday.
An Audi A3 was stopped on a stretch of the dual carriageway, near Houghton-le-Spring, and a short time later, officers stopped a VW Caddy van, southbound on the A1(M) in the Durham area.
A search revealed 15kg of cocaine in the Audi.
Officers also searched a house in Derbyshire and found a handgun and a cannabis farm.
Mark Peter Burbidge, 36, from Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, and 63-year-old Gerald O'Leary, from Litherland, in Liverpool, have been charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine. They were remanded in custody by Newcastle magistrates on Friday, to appear again on Tuesday, May 29.
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