UK’s biggest ever drugs smuggling ring busted
‘Major impact on UK drug market’
PoliCe have smashed britain’s biggest ever drugs network, suspected of supplying county lines gangs in ‘every corner of the country’.
officers dismantled an international crime gang suspected of smuggling billions of pounds worth of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
The gang was allegedly shipping vast quantities of the drugs into the UK through the Channel Tunnel and other ports around the country.
drugs were hidden inside fruit and buried among juice cartons and vegetables in lorries travelling from Holland between February 2017 and october 2018.
Yesterday, 13 men aged between 24 and 59 were held in dawn raids in london, manchester, Stockport, St Helens, Warrington, bolton, dewsbury and leeds as officers rounded up the suspected kingpins said to be enjoying a luxury lifestyle by smuggling the class A drugs into britain.
They are believed to be part of the biggest drug smuggling gang the NCA has ever uncovered, which operated on an ‘industrial scale’ for years using british and dutch companies as a front. more than 50 tonnes of heroin, cocaine and cannabis was imported in three consignments from Holland in 2018 alone, the NCA said.
officers also uncovered 351 kilos of cocaine, 92 kilos of heroin, 250 kilos of cannabis and 1,850 kilos of hemp and hashish, with a total street value of more than £38million. The gang is suspected of being a major supplier of UK county lines networks which rely on teenagers to transport drugs across the country.
investigators launched an 18month operation after a group of drug traffickers were caught at a motorway service car park in 2015.
in a sophisticated operation, an HgV carrying 100 kilos of pure heroin worth £10million arrived at North Shields on a ferry from Holland before being driven to a lorry park at lymm services on the m6 in Cheshire.
Nine ‘collectors’ travelled from merseyside, West Yorkshire and london, using banknotes to identify themselves and a colourcoding system to ensure they got the right packages.
Thirteen men were later jailed for a total of 176 years in 2016 for heroin importation – but the masterminds remained at large. investigators then examined similar imports from Holland, focusing particularly on perishable goods as these are moved swiftly through ports to avoid items going off.
Jayne lloyd, NCA regional head of investigations, said: ‘i would imagine these drugs went to every corner of the country. i am confident we have had a major impact on the drugs market in britain.’
She said: ‘Stopping criminals who don’t care about the damage they are causing in communities, and the children being exploited by county lines drug dealing, is an absolute priority.
‘ We suspect these men were involved in an industrial-scale operation – the biggest ever uncovered in the UK – bringing in tonnes of deadly drugs... we believe we have dismantled a well-established drug supply route,’ she added.