Cocaine Galore! Cornish parish clerk takes £1.5m drug haul home in wheelbarrow after it washed up on a beach

But never before have the coves of Cornwall been awash with contraband of such value.

Five carefully wrapped consignments of cocaine worth millions of pounds have appeared on beaches around the county after being washed up from the Atlantic.

It is not known how old the drugs are or where they came from.

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But so much has been found that one resident had to use a wheelbarrow to take home a block worth £1.5million to stop it falling into the wrong hands.

Frank Partridge, a 57-year-old electrical engineer - and clerk of the local parish council - found the 2ft square package while walking his dogs on a beach on the Lizard Peninsula.

"It was there, just lying at the edge of the tide line," he said.

"I didn't know what these suspicious packages looked like, but I thought it was not a normal thing to find on a beach."

He dragged the package off the sand and used the wheelbarrow to take it home.

"I couldn't leave it lying there," he said. "I thought if I left it and the wrong people came along then it's gone."

The packages were well wrapped to prevent contamination by the sea water, but it is not yet known whether the drugs are still usable.

Some have landed with barnacles attached, indicating they may have been in the water for some time.

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Officials believe the packages were either thrown into the sea deliberately by smugglers or lost overboard in poor weather conditions.

It is even possible they have floated all the way from the Caribbean.

Two of the 50lb bundles, found near Bude and Helston earlier this month, have been confirmed as cocaine, while tests are pending on the other three.

One of these was discovered at Rosevine Beach at Portscatho.

A fishing boat off the Lizard Peninsula trawled up the second package, and on Monday Mr Partridge found the third on Pentreath Beach.

Detective-Inspector Martin Warren, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "The drugs we have recovered so far could have a street value of over £6million.

"I have never seen such a large amount washed up in such a short time."