Police used a mechanical digger to smash into the luxury home of one of the suspected kingpins behind a £100 million cocaine empire.
Officers swarmed inside after a hole was smashed in a wall surrounding the fortified £3 million detached west London property.
The dawn raid was one of more than 30 that took place throughout the day at homes and businesses across London and the Home Counties.
Senior officers said the operation wiped out one of Britain's biggest cocaine rings and struck a "huge blow" against the illegal trade.
About 110 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of £5.5 million, was seized as 23 people were arrested and several guns recovered.
Scotland Yard said the move, which involved 520 officers and took seven weeks to plan, was the largest simultaneous set of raids it has ever undertaken.
Detective Superintendent Steve Richardson, who was responsible for the operation, said the raids were the final blow to dismantle the network.
He described the gang as "ruthless and determined criminals" who profited from illegal drugs.
The operation, codenamed Eaglewood, followed six months of surveillance and information-gathering by Scotland Yard's elite specialist intelligence section.
Among those arrested were men with British, Israeli, Iraqi, Egyptian and Irish backgrounds.
