'Israelis' among nabbed in UK drug bust

British police charged 19 people, including two Israelis, with a variety of drugs and money-laundering offences Thursday after a huge set of dawn raids a day earlier broke up a suspected 100-million-pound (200-million-dollar, 135-million-euro) cocaine network.

They will all appear in city of Westminster magistrates' court in the capital on Friday morning, a statement released by the metropolitan police confirmed.

They were arrested in raids on homes and offices, which followed six months of surveillance by Scotland Yard, and in which police seized nearly three million pounds in cash, as well as 70 kilogrammes (155 pounds) of cocaine with a street value of 500,000 pounds and four guns.

Among those charged were two men born in 'Israel,' aged 24 and 44, one man from Egypt, aged 53, a 39-year-old man born in Iraq, a 23-year-old woman from Hong Kong and a man born in Tanzania, aged 39.

Along with the 19 charged, an 18-year-old was released on bail, and three others were dealt with for immigration offences, the police said.