Western Morning News (Saturday)
Four jailed for bid to import cannabis through Cornwall
Bluebells make a pretty picture at Enys Gardens, near Falmouth. The flowers are at their peak across the Westcountry, blooming later than usual after a very dry spring, followed by plenty of rain during May
FOUR members of an organised crime group, who conspired to import cannabis on a yacht into the UK through Cornwall, have been jailed following a National Crime Agency investigation.
The men used encrypted comms platform EncroChat to plan the importation of the Class B drug from Morocco, between 29 February and 1 June 2020.
Cash totalling more than £25,000 was recovered, as well as four cannabis plants and six cannabis seedlings from Challis’s home.
Led by Rupert Kelly, 29, from Broadwindsor, Dorset, the crime group conspired to use a yacht and a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) to offload the drugs in Cornwall for dis
Ring leaders: top left, Rupert Kelly; top right, Daniel Parrot; bottom left, Gavin Challis; and Jason Tongue tribution across the UK.
Investigators found that Daniel Parrot, 48, from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, was responsible for purchasing fuel drums, which would be used as cover to transport the cannabis on the
RHIB.
Gavin Challis, 46, from Nazeing, Essex, was to arrange the purchase of the cannabis for supply in the UK, while Jason Tongue, 47, from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, was due to meet the RHIB when it landed in the UK.
At Bristol Crown Court on Thursday, Kelly was sentenced to five years and six months, Parrot three years and six months, Challis three years, and Tongue 18 months.