Legal News

The members of two gangs which planned to smuggle cocaine into the UK in shipments of pineapples and bananas have been jailed for a total of 150 years at Winchester Crown Court.

The Daily Mail reports that a worker at Portsmouth Docks was also targeted to help the gangs smuggle in the drugs.

Dock worker Shaun Wilson was targeted by nine men from two drugs gangs to help them carry out their plan. The men met in pubs, service stations and parks to discuss the job, but were unaware that police officers were carrying out covert surveillance on them.

Wilson, 46, had been targeted by the two gangs because he had insider knowledge of security procedures at Portsmouth Docks.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said that the gangs were planning to time the shipment of the drugs in fruit containers to coincide with the rota of shifts worked by Wilson at the docks. This would ensure Wilson could remove the cocaine from the fruit containers before it was detected.

The first shipment of cocaine from Costa Rica had a £3 million street value and weighed 26kg. It was shipped inside a container load of pineapples in November 2010.

However, as the container arrived at Portsmouth Docks officers from the NCA intercepted the shipment.

Police arrested the first gang members as a result and then arrested Wilson. Wilson’s arrest led to officers preventing a second shipment of cocaine arriving in a container of bananas. Wilson’s arrest also led to the arrest of the remaining gang members.

The 10 men – including Wilson – were given sentences of between eight-and-a-half and 20 years each, after being found guilty of conspiring to smuggle into the UK Class A drugs worth millions of pounds inside exotic fruit containers.

Although Wilson had been convicted on a charge of conspiracy to import cocaine into Britain in September 2011 and was sentenced to 14 years in jail, the case was subject to reporting restrictions imposed by the court.
Wilson was convicted of a second offence relating to the second plot and was given a concurrent eight-year prison sentence.

On Saturday (30/08/14), the last defendant to be jailed was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court and reporting restrictions were lifted.

The names of the nine men convicted and jailed with Wilson are Richard Edwards, Norman Burton, Audley Powell, Ward, Errol Heibner, Jason Flisher, Donald Chambers, David Roberts and Roy Godber.

A spokesman for the NCA, Gerry McGowan, said:

“Wilson abused his position of trust by providing the crime groups with details of suitable ships, routes and times.
“He was going to ensure he was on duty to guarantee safe removal of the drugs – the long term plan was to import vast quantities of cocaine on a regular basis.

“Protecting our borders is a priority for the NCA. We will be relentless in pursuing criminals who try to bring drugs into the country, however long it takes, and wherever they try to hide.”

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