Armed Response team halts van loaded with cannabis after dramatic police chase through Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire Police helped halt a van carrying a load of cannabis in a high-speed motorway chase across three counties on Saturday night.

Officers from the crack Armed Response Vehicle team were alerted to a suspicious blue Ford Transit and a black Audi SQ5 heading south through the county in convoy just before midnight.

They tracked the vehicles towards London in collaboration with officers from the National Police Air Service, Beds, Cambs & Herts and Thames Valley Police before eventually forcing the vehicles to stop on the M25.

Subsequent searches of the vehicles uncovered what a Hertfordshire Constabulary spokesman called a "large amount of cannabis" in the van.

Six men aged between 22 and 49 — three from London and three of no fixed address — have all been charged with production of a class B drug.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you.