Paralysed smuggler hid heroin and cocaine in adapted trailer

A PARALYSED drug smuggler who drove a specially adapted trailer to hide £250 million of cocaine and heroin on a Welsh farm has been jailed.

Guy Remington, 48, of Welsh Bicknor, Hertfordshire, drove a modified car pulling a trailer, which could cov- ertly store drugs.

Officers estimate Remington, who had a trailer business which he used as a cover, carried between two and three tonnes of class A drugs into the UK across nine trips.

He was arrested following his final trip and with police seizing 700 kilos of class A narcotics. On Thursday, he was jailed for seven years at Chester magistrates’ court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import and supply heroin and cocaine at an earlier hearing. Three others were jailed for their roles in a plot during which £250 million worth of class A drugs smuggled into the country and stored in Flintshire, North Wales.

As part of the conspiracy, masterminded from Dubai, heroin and cocaine came from South America, through mainland Europe and were brought into the UK on a trailer, the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) said.

Detective Chief Superintendent Ian Whitehead, head of NWROCU, said: “We believe the conspiracy was ultimately orchestrated by individuals abroad, including as far away as Dubai.”

He said police believe that class A drugs, predominantly cocaine but also heroin, distributed from South America through mainland Europe were destined to be brought into the UK and then distributed across the UK.

He added: “We observed the activities of these individuals over a period of time, gathered evidence. We were able to secure the seizure of 700 kilos of class A drugs and we would estimate that over the period of nine similar journeys the group made during that time they were responsible for bringing into the UK between two and three tonnes of class A drugs.”

Mr Whitehead said: “Luke Hirst was the tenant for the farm premises and what that farm premises provided them was a cover that would allow them to move vehicles and drugs in and out of that location otherwise undetected.”

Hirst, 38, of Pinfold Lane, Alltami, was described by police as a “leading role” in the organised crime group, sourcing and distributing multi-kilo amounts of cocaine on an industrial scale.

He was sentenced to 12 years in jail after admitting conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Temple in a publicity still for his stage act. He has been jailed for eight months