A £50M cocaine haul has been stopped from reaching the streets of Britain following its discovery in the back of a lorry in Hampshire.

Four men were due in court today after the drug was found near Winchester by customs officers.

The drug haul, weighing 800kg - 1,763lb - was the biggest inland seizure in three years.

The seizure, by officers at a service station on the M3 near Winchester, followed a Customs and Excise intelligence-led operation.

Four men were arrested, two at the scene, one in Oxfordshire and another in Wales.

All have since been charged at Winchester police station with attempting to import a class-A drug.

They were expected to appear at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court today.

Hampshire police had assisted customs officers by blocking the lorry from leaving the services, just past junction 9 on the north-bound carriageway, while a number of suspects were detained.

The class-A drugs were found in a consignment of groundnuts and had entered the UK from France having originated in Latin America, although it was not yet clear which country, said a Customs and Excise spokeswoman.

Officers swooped into action on Friday when the lorry stopped to fill up with fuel at the Goldstar petrol station.

The lorry was then taken to the service area's car park and the drugs seized.

Details were not released publicly until mid-afternoon on Saturday.

The haul came just 24 hours after the Royal Navy seized 3.6 tonnes of cocaine in the mid-Atlantic, with an estimated street value of £250m.

Customs have also seized £1m worth of herbal cannabis, found in a furniture depository on an industrial estate in Bournemouth, Dorset, on Thursday.

A customs spokeswoman said: "This is the biggest cocaine seizure inland in the past three years, and is the second largest cocaine seizure customs have made in 24 hours.

"With the help of Hampshire police, who secured the area around the services and blocked the path of the lorry, officers from the Customs and Excise Mobile Investigation Unit were able to halt the drugs and detain two men."

One person who just missed the incident was Kevin Parr, 29, from Lovedon Lane in Kings Worthy.

He said: "It's unbelievable. I stopped at the services on the way to Basingstoke on Friday and saw some police cars, but didn't know what was going on."

The four men charged in connection with the £50m drugs haul are Patrick Fitzgerald, 40, from Manor Park, London, Andrew Barry Hunter, 35, from South Woodford, London, Stuart Thornhill, 56, from Newbury, Berkshire, and his brother Ian Thornhill, 52, from Bridgend, Wales.