Warehouse man blows whistle on international drug plot

13 November 2009

Five British people are serving prison sentences totalling 89 years for smuggling drugs worth up to £125m into the UK, thanks to an eagle-eyed warehouse man.

He noticed that the same shipment of industrial rollers seemed to turn up repeatedly at the Brussels depot where he worked, and discreetly marked the rollers to try and confirm his suspicions. When the same rollers turned up again a week later he alerted the Belgian authorities. Hidden inside the shipment were 20kg of cocaine, 10kg of phenacetin and 365kg of herbal cannabis.

SOCA conducted a controlled delivery of the drugs to their UK destination, and watched as two men drove the drugs from Birmingham to Dublin, where the Irish police picked up the trail. The investigation found that the rollers had been sent back and forth between the Netherlands, where they were filled with drugs, and Dublin, where the drugs were unloaded and the empty rollers began their return journey.

Had each shipment contained the same type and quantity of drugs as the initial discovery, the gang would have been responsible for 400kgs of cocaine and 7.3 tonnes of cannabis smuggled into Ireland.

SOCA’s expert witness told the court that the cocaine would have been cut from its original 83% purity to a typical 27%, making it worth around £45m at 2006 street prices. The cannabis would have been worth £80m.

SOCA Deputy Director Iain MacLeod said:

“This gang tried to smuggle a huge quantity of drugs into Ireland, and there is every indication they would have carried on if it weren’t for the intervention of a keen eyed warehouse man and some excellent international cooperation. Together we have squashed a trafficking ring worth millions of pounds and prevented the harm these drugs would have inflicted on the communities of Ireland.”