Three years ago, £42m worth of cocaine washed up on an Aberystwyth beach.

The sleepy seaside town became awash with news crews, wannabe sleuths and police vans as the National Crime Agency (the UK’s FBI) took over the case.

However with three years having now passed since October 1 2022 when the first load was found, it appears authorities and the public are no closer to getting answers about where the cocaine was headed, where it came from, and who it belonged to.

The National Crime Agency has ignored the last two years of emails from Cambrian News staff requesting updates on the case, whether the investigation is still live, or if any arrests have been made.

The first load was found by a dog walker on Tanybwlch beach - there were an estimated 30 bags of the Class A drug emblazoned with Dior branding.

But if you think that a 1,200kg string of Class A drugs tied up to buoyancy aids was a rare occurrence in this neck of the woods, you’d be wrong - in the coming weeks after the first find, several more packages turned up across Cardigan Bay, Borth, and Tywyn.

This has happened more than some may think - in October 2023 packages of cocaine were found floating off the coast of Dorset and the Isle of Wight, believed to be from a merchant ship from South America - where most cocaine comes from and the bush, Coca, is indigenous.

The same month, £2m of cocaine was found on a beach in Sussex.

In September 2024, £3m worth of cocaine was found in a cove in Cornwall.

The Aberystwyth haul was by far the biggest in wholesale value to incidentally wash up on a shore in recent years.

With the most common travel routes for cocaine trafficking between the US, Mexico and Western Europe running just below the Irish Sea and passing southernmost England, it makes sense that the west coast of England and Wales would receive these accidental parcels every once in a while.

With the prevailing sea flow on the Cardigan coast going from south to north, the coast receives a lot of finds washed up from southern parts.

But Aberystwyth University forensic psychologist Dr Gareth Norris speculates these more analogue means of trafficking may be becoming more frequent as drug detection technology becomes more intelligent: “Lots of smugglers are reverting to more old-fashioned means.

“It could’ve fallen overboard or been thrown into the sea if they thought they were being followed.

“There are situations where people dump loads with a tracker, and it got detached - but no one would have lost that size of consignment lightly.”

Though Dr Norris refuted that there was anymore drug crime in Aberystwyth than elsewhere, and the Police and Crime Commissioner at the time said he was “shocked” by the consignment found, drug crimes were found in 2024 to be the highest in Aberystwyth compared to any other UK coastal town.