Jailed, builder who smuggled £41m of cocaine on private jets

A BRICKLAYER posed as a high-flying businessman to smuggle £ 1million of cocaine into the UK on private jets.

Martin Neil, 9, pictured, pretended to be a wealthy cryptocurrency trader travelling to Colombia to watch pop star Bruno Mars.

He and three Spanish accomplices stayed at luxury hotels and used a motorcade of limousines to ferry their vast amount of luggage around.

But the operation collapsed when customs officials searched his bags after he touched down at Farnborough Airport, Hampshire, in January. They found half a ton of high-purity cocaine worth at least £ 1million stuffed in suitcases.

Investigators suspect a South American drugs cartel was behind the operation.

They fear it highlights the vulnerability of small airports to use by drug trafficking gangs.

When officials reviewed X-ray images of the gang’s luggage on the outgoing flight to Colombia they discovered every suitcase had been stuffed with money.

And they believe Neil and others may have brought in a similar quantity of the drug on a flight one month earlier.

Yesterday, Neil, of Bournemouth, was jailed for 2 years after a jury convicted him of importing class A drugs.

Three other men, including a Wetherspoon’s pub worker and a waiter, were also jailed for between 20 and 2 years at Woolwich Crown Court.

Their arrest in January led to an investigation by the National Crime Agency which found the men travelled to Colombia twice in similar circumstances.

They would all pose as businessmen involved in cryptocurrencies or the music industry on hospitality jaunts arranged by a charity.

An NCA spokesman said the loss of profit resulting from the seizure would be a ‘huge hit’ to the cartels involved.

Spaniards Alessandro Iembo, 28, of Bournemouth, and Victor FrancoLorenzo, 0, were jailed for 2 years.

A third, Jose Ramon Migueles-Botas, 56, was jailed for 20 years.