Police in 100mph chase after tracking helicopter
A field in Yalding was one of the drop sites used by criminals to smuggle drugs into the UK. The Liverpool-based gang was run by Lance Kennedy, who admitted in Liverpool Crown Court to being the mastermind behind a plot to fly in half a ton of cocaine by helicopter.
The National Crime Agency said gang members would rent holiday homes in Kent beneath the flight-paths of the Dutch helicopters which would register flight plans between Antwerp in Belgium and airfields in southern England.
But the helicopter would land en route, quickly unload holdalls of drugs, before taking off and resuming its flight. The gang then took the drugs by road to Liverpool for distribution. On at least one occasion, a bed-sheet was put on the ground to indicate the landing point. The NCA was tracking one flight when it disappeared from the radar over Yalding.
Police subsequently were involved in a 100mph chase with a BMW along the M26 before it was stopped and the driver arrested. Inside were holdalls containing 43kg of cocaine, 60kg of heroin and 30 encrypted phones. The drugs were estimated to be worth £12million. Other drops, there were six in total, were made in Eastling near Faversham, and at Dover, where they rented Gun Emplacement Cottage, a holiday home belonging to actress Miriam Margolyes, who played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter. Miss Margolyes was unaware of their criminal plans. Kennedy, 32, who ran the operation from his home in Barcelona, was jailed for 18 years, and 11 others were jailed on Friday with sentences ranging from four to 14 years.
Kennedy and gang member Robert Stewart, 38, were not in the UK, when police made most of the arrests last October. However, in February they were arrested by border police as they tried to cross from Moldova into Ukraine and were extradited to the UK.