A drug smuggling ring which brought cocaine worth up to half a billion pounds into Greater Manchester hidden in metal pipes has been brought to justice.
Five men now face jail for their part in importing the drug from Spain to a warehouse in Trafford Park.
They were caught last summer when one haul, worth £25m, was discovered by UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers and then swapped for flour by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Darrol Sedgwick, 43, of Foxdenton Drive, Stretford, was found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine, after a three-week trial at Manchester crown court.
Carl Smith, 40, of St Mary’s Road, Moston; Lee Smith, 42, of Mount Road, Middleton; Darren Lowe, 31, of Woodstock Road, Moston; and Craig Loveday, 41, of Prince Street, Rochdale, all pleaded guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine at an earlier hearing.
Carl Smith played a ‘central role in the conspiracy’ prosecutors said, operating a courier service transporting the Class A drug into Britain.
Lee Smith, Lowe and Loveday were associates of Carl Smith and all played a lesser part in the conspiracy. They will be sentenced at a later date.
UKBA officers found 80kg of cocaine in a lorry at Dover on July 20, last year.
SOCA replaced the drugs with flour and allowed the vehicle to continue to Trafford Park. They then planned to pounce when the gang went to collect the stash.
But the gang grew suspicious when the delivery was delayed by 24 hours – so staged a ‘robbery’ to steal their own cocaine.
Vincent Martin, 39, of Oakcliff Road, Baguley, and Dean Denton, 31, of Kearsley Road, Crumpsall, were hired for the raid.
Both admitted attempted robbery at an earlier hearing, but said they did not know what they were stealing.
After the gang realised the drugs had been replaced, they dumped the flour in the River Irk in Middleton.
Prosecutor Paul Mitchell said the drugs imported during the scheme would have ‘a street value in excess of £500m’.
After the case, Steve Baldwin, head of investigations in the North West for SOCA, said: "If you come on to our radar we will pursue you relentlessly, track you down and put you behind bars."
Darren Spensley, 34, of Poplar Grove, Ramsbottom, Bury; Duncan Rimmer, 52, of Devoke Avenue, Worsley, Salford; and Steven Smith, 38, of Heywood Old Road, Middleton, were all cleared of conspiracy to import cocaine.
Smugglers who flooded streets with half-a-billion pounds of cocaine
Darrol Sedgwick - The married dad-of-three was ‘a crucial assistant’ providing a point of contact between the conspirators and legitimate companies. When quizzed by police, Sedgwick admitted he organised the rental of various vans – which were then used for importing the cocaine He used false names, signatures, and addresses when dealing with Davies Turner warehouse in Trafford Park and was also partly responsible for setting up a fictional firm, after the gang's front company was busted.
Davies Turner, a legitimate company, was not aware of the conspiracy.
Carl Smith - He was involved in ‘all of the main parts of the conspiracy and was making ‘considerable money’ from the scheme – while all the time claiming benefits. Smith visited Barcelona in connection with cocaine deliveries more than any other gang member, travelling by van and plane.
Eleven of his fingerprints were found on three documents connected with the gang's front company in July 2007, and May and October 2008. No other defendants’ fingerprints were found on any documents. Mobile phone tracking evidence also placed Smith at the scene of the raid at Davies Turner, and at the place where the tubes were dumped in Middleton.
Craig Loveday - Loveday was one of the key van drivers in the conspiracy. Prosecutors said he had ‘a deeper knowledge and involvement’ than some of the other members and was an associate of central figure Carl Smith. Loveday admitted knowing Smith and told police he had travelled to France with him ‘to buy beer.’ He was given crates of beer for his efforts.
Lee Smith - He claimed to run a legitimate building company, but investigators at SOCA found mobile phone tracking evidence which placed him near to the bogus robbery at Trafford Park. He was also linked to where the tubes full of flour were dumped afterwards. He also made at least three trips to the Continent at relevant times during the conspiracy, and once with his cousin Carl Smith.
Darren Lowe - Lowe was described by prosecutors as ‘an important and very active lieutenant’ in the conspiracy with a variety of roles. He picked up at least 23 loads of metal tubes from the warehouse in Trafford Park.
He was ‘by far the most active driver’ and mobile phone tracking evidence put him at a meeting with other conspirators. Prosecutors said he met in Bury with gang members Lee and Carl Smith the day before the fake robbery of the warehouse. Lowe had picked up what he said were security bollards – which were the tubes packed with cocaine – from Trafford Park on more than 15 occasions. He was paid £200 for each run.
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Lets just hope that these five pedlars of death are sent to prison for as long as the law allows.
Good riddance
Oh give them a break!
Give them 25 years suspended sentence with 100hrs community service and a £300 fine and £80 costs...
it's the going rate now you know!!
£25 million to £500 million thats some mark up. No wonder there are people willing to import this drug in to this country and no matter how many busts they hear about it will never be a big enough deterrent for some as the ££ earned for them far outweighs the risks.
To start a debate I ask how much tax could be earned off this stuff which has already and will continue to flood our country.
Give them 30 years each, make sure they do 30 years, then they should be 70 getting out, they can buy a flash car each on HP then..
If they had kept the flour they could have crawled some dough back by making bread. Flour power.
Don't anyone hold your breath for 'appropriate' sentences for this bunch of death dealers. I am only sorry that they didn't pass through Thailand and get caught there. Perhaps then, their sentence may have been one that fitted the crime.
They brought the stuff here, because we are a 'soft touch' and there is nothing to fear by being caught. More's the pity.
Using false names and addresses is common practice in this country. That is why the criminal community and dodgy businessmen made every effort to get the ID-Card program canceled. Good news for cheats and theives when their parties got elected.
How could they hire fires using false identities. When you hire assets you have to prove your identity with an official ID-Card, otherwise anybody could simply make names and addresses up, surely. Oh I forgot: the ID-card was scrapped, because almost every other country in the world have them, so everybody else is daft and we are oh so much cleverer.
Well done for tracking these criminals down.
Of course it will be a deterrant to other such crimes. Foreign dealers would be much more reluctant to deal with UK suppliers due to highly ambitious and competent organisations such as SOCA and UKBA. No matter what the sentance is people are also forgetting the amount of the lethal drug has been stopped from getting on our streets.
Give the guys credit where it's due.
Also can i add it was great reporting. Very detailed and informative.
Despite their false ID´s, deceit and criminal genius they STILL got caught. So not so smart huh? The only way to win the drug war is to legalize drugs. That way you cut the middle man out, i.e. this bunch of Charlie´s, and the state can become the peddler and impose VAT and duty on the old Columbian marching powder and any other mood enhancing substance - which are probably less damaging than the alcohol sold on every street corner. As an added benefit, half of the police force could be done away with, saving the tax payer a small fortune in bonuses and sick leave.
If people didn't use drugs there would be no market for drug dealers and importers. It's the ones who take the stuff who are to blame. Pity they can't all take a massive overdose and die then a major worldwide problem would be solved at a stroke!
This drug was introduced by the upper class hence the nickname rich mans wizz!
So before you all try pointing your finger at the lower class and blaming them maybe you should take a look at your bank manager or solicitor people in higher class positions as its because of people like them this drug made its way to our shores in the 1st place!
Sure its everywhere nowadays but it started with them fact!
Were they caught with a speed camera?
Lock them all and throw the keys!
These vermin are an athema for all good, law-abiding, people.
Type your comment here...They will more than likely be able to supply all the other prisoners with drug's when they end up inside? Make them work part time in a drug rehab centre, just to let them see the misery that drug's inflict on vulnerable people.
Legalize or not to legalize, what a fascinating debate. Why aren't they debating it in Westminster, that's the question.
cocaine from spain falls mainly on the plane.
Most of the Cabinet are not strangers to a bit of "Charlie" but had this gang known about the failure of the Russian grain harvest they would have kept the flour
Why is one guy wearing sun glasses on his mug shot????
Legalize spliff
Here is a fact, for the anto drugs crowd. When alcohol was made illegal in america, the amount of people using it soared. That is a solid gold fact. It is a historical fact. The amunt of death and destruction soared with it. Al Capone would never have been anything more than a petty thug without the easy millions upon millions he made from selling illegal alcohol. When it was finally legalised, the american mafia had made so much from it they were able to bank roll themselves in other ventures. The very term 'organised crime' was coined because of alcohol prohibition. Before they made it illegal there was NO SUCH THING, or at least nobody had bothered to coin the phrase 'organised crime'.
What is it about any of the above that the numskulls on here cant understand?
I don't get the need for such a headline. Wasn't it obvious?
just trying to open a debate,that should be being held in Parliament,with plenty of views taken from ALL interested parties pro/anti and neutral on whether and what type of drugs should be legal.
A few observations. 1/ prohibition of alcohol in the USA never worked and led to a losing battle against rich criminals.
2/ attitudes within generations and experiences vary enormously,many younger people openly smoke dope on the streets in public,even in daylight with impunity.
3/does smoking weed lead to injecting harder drugs?you may as well ask does drinking beer lead to drinking cider or meths in the park,the sad answer to both is that for some people it is yes.
4/does the war on drugs benefit society as a whole? that is probably the most difficult question to answer when crime to obtain money to purchase drugs and enforcement is taken into account.
5/how many people now fund their lifestyle from this underworld ,rather than signing on and claiming money as unemployed?Could this be one explanation of the HUGE difference in figures between those claiming benefits,and the number with no visible means of income.That is the so called NEETS?