Hauliers Jailed Over Drug Smuggling Operation

Seven men have been jailed for a total of 80 years for their parts in a European-wide drug smuggling operation.

Described as a "gang of hauliers", Greater Manchester Police said that the jail terms follow an operation that targeted "an organised criminal network who used their extensive knowledge and expertise in the European haulage industry to smuggle cash out of the UK and import Class A and B drugs with a street value of £6.5m into the UK".

Peter Hall, of Ratcliffe Terrace, Mossley, Ashton, was convicted of conspiracy to import Class A and B drugs following a trial.

Seamus Ward, of Bracknell Avenue, Liverpool, was convicted of conspiracy to import Class and B drugs.

Michael McLoughlin, of Rose Cottage, Welshpool, was convicted of conspiracy to import Class A and B drugs and Robert Wood, of Manordale Close, Wakefield, was convicted of conspiracy to import Class A and B drugs and concealing criminal property.

Police said that these four played controlling, leading and organising roles in the conspiracy.

Urfan Khan, of Cheshire Park, Bracknell, and Sandeep Sahota Singh, of Coldharbour Lane, Hayes, were convicted of importation of cannabis.

Hall, Ward, McLoughlin, and Wood were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Singh was sentenced to five years in prison and Khan will be sentenced at a later date.

On 21 April 2012, a HGV purportedly carrying plastic pellets was stopped by officers from Borders Force as it returned from Europe. A search of the lorry revealed a very sophisticated hidden compartment in the roof of the trailer, from which with 160kg of amphetamine and 6kg of cocaine were seized.

The street value of the drugs was more than £6m.

Inquiries by detectives subsequently revealed the lorry was owned by Ward, and that a few days before it had left for Europe, the HGV had been subject to repairs made by a company linked to McLoughlin.

The investigation also revealed the members of the group were in close contact with each other and controlled this importation.

In October 2012, Ward drove to the Walsall area where he picked up a power station transformer which had been imported from Holland. The transformer stored within a shipping crate was lined with lead to avoid X-ray detection and modified to conceal drugs. Ward then drove to the Manchester area to a paper recycling plant in Clayton owned by Hall, and Hall took delivery of the transformer.

A few weeks later, McLoughlin loaded the transformer in a hired box van and drove it to the docks in Hull where he boarded an overnight ferry to Rotterdam. When the grate returned to the UK, it was stopped and recovered by GMP in the Gloucestershire area.

The crate containing the transformer was recovered and found to contain 38kg of cannabis with a street value of £380,000.

Again, the investigation was able to show that the members of the group were in close contact with each other and controlled this importation, it was also established that Khan and Singh were the intended recipients of the cannabis.

Over the following months, the suspects were all arrested by detectives from GMP's Serious Crime Division, who seized numerous phones, documentation and cash.

As part of GMP's investigation, officers identified a Robert Whitehouse, 68, from the Worcestershire area, who was both linked to the gang and ran his own crime syndicate in the south west of England, importing vast amounts of drugs into the UK. This information was passed to West Mercia Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit who carried out an investigation that resulted in Whitehouse being jailed for 22 years.

Detective Inspector Martin Hopkinson said: "These men had the expertise, the contacts and the know-how within the European haulage industry to smuggle cash out of the UK and bring back millions of pounds worth of drugs.

"It is clear from the lengths they went to in order to hide their drugs, in a variety of sophisticated concealments, that these men were absolutely intent on carrying out their criminal endeavours and flooding our streets with drugs. I have no doubt had we not stopped them they'd still be doing it today."

(MH)