Jailed...copter drug baron in £7m cocaine hotel drops
Over four months, he smuggled £7million of cocaine into Britain before his operation was smashed by Scotland Yard last September. Fagnoul, of Ferrieres, in Belgium, admitted conspiracy to import cocaine at Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday and was jailed for 17½ years.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “You imported at least 80 kilograms and your plan was to import 170 kilograms.”
The court heard he duped a pilot into flying the drugs into the grounds of the Eastwell Manor Hotel, Ashford, and the Chilston Park Hotel, at Lenham, near Maidstone.
Fagnoul used a special key fob to release trap doors beneath the helicopter’s seats where the drugs were hidden. They were then transferred to a Nissan Qashqai car.
Posing as a wealthy businessman, Fagnoul told staff he had been night fishing in the English Channel. Staff at both hotels had no idea what was going on, the court was told. James Brown, prosecuting, said: “This was a sophisticated conspiracy and Belgian drug smuggler Frederic Fagnoul, 50 was concerned with the supply of vast quantities of cocaine, of a very high purity, a valuable class A controlled drug.”
After an undercover operation at both hotels, officers from the Organised Crime Command (OCC) moved in. Fagnoul was arrested at the Chilston Park Hotel.
In his luxury suite, police found the key fob used to open up the hiding place in the helicopter along with encrypted phones and plastic gloves. Fagnoul claimed he had been forced into the smuggling racket by thugs over a £260,000 debt. Officers also arrested drug couriers John Bolter, 36, of Tooting, south London, and Dean Francis, 37, of Lewisham, south-east London, who both admitted conspiracy to supply. Bolter was jailed for seven-and-a-half years yesterday. Francis will be sentenced on Thursday.
Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Gallagher, head of the OCC, said: “This was an outstanding investigation by the OCC combating a drug-dealing network that spread from Europe to the UK.”