£55m cocaine smuggling gang jailed for 64 years

Three men have been jailed for a total of 64 years today for attempting to smuggle £55 million of cocaine into the UK.

The men who were sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court today were – Duncan Newport, 36, from Dyffryn Ardudwy, Gwynedd, who was jailed for 26 years; Rex Newport, 58, also from Dyffryn Ardudwy, Gwynedd, and the father of Duncan, who received 20 years; and Mark Reeves, 38, from Blaketown, near Kidderminster, who received 18 years.

A fourth defendant, Louis Hillard, 57, an associate of the Newport, of no fixed abode, will be sentenced at a later date.

Customs law enforcement officers stopped a "sophisticated plan" to smuggle 651 kilos of cocaine in a freight container arriving in Felixstowe from Ecuador. The drugs, with a street value of £55 million, were concealed in earthmoving machinery.

The Customs sting which netted the trio was described by the service as one its "biggest and most successful drugs investigations".

On November 13 2002, as the result of a long term Customs surveillance operation, customs officers at Felixstowe selected a container that had arrived from Ecuador for examination. Its contents had been declared as 'heavy plant'.

An initial scan of the container and its contents led to more detailed investigations revealing a large quantity of cocaine concealed within the consignment of machinery. Customs officers arranged for the delivery of the container, under constant surveillance, to its shipping address in Langley Mill, Nottinghamshire, and on November 20 2002 it was delivered and its contents unloaded.

Within an hour of the container being unloaded, customs officers saw a man meticulously examining the machinery for more than half an hour, most of which time he was using a mobile phone. The following day a lorry collected the consignment and delivered it to an industrial unit in Bushbury, Wolverhampton, and later that day customs officers raided the unit, finding Reeves and Hillard in the process of removing the concealed drugs.

The pair were arrested at the scene and Duncan and Rex Newport were arrested later the same day. Two men have also been arrested and prosecuted in Ecuador for their part in the smuggling attempt.

Customs Minister John Healey said: "These tough sentences are a stark warning to those who traffic in drugs. Customs will continue to attack illegal drugs smuggling, using all the means at its disposal. Today's sentences demonstrate Customs' commitment to catching and prosecuting the criminals involved in this illegal trade."

(gmcg)