Legal News

Manchester Crown Court has jailed a gang of hauliers found guilty of drug trafficking for 20 years each.

Manchester Evening News reports that the men turned to drugs trafficking when their legitimate haulage business ran into financial difficulties.

Peter Hall, 50, of Ratcliffe Terrace in Mossley, Seamus Ward, 34, of Bracknell Avenue in Liverpool, Michael McLoughlin, 57, of Rose Cottage in Welshpool, and Robert Wood, 58, of Manordale Close in Wakefield used their struggling, legitimate trucking and logistics businesses as cover to smuggle large quantities of cocaine, cannabis and amphetamines into the UK from the Netherlands, the court heard.

After a seven-week trial, they were all found guilty of conspiring to evade the prohibition on the importation of class A and B drugs in the £6.5 million conspiracy.

A fifth man – Sandeep Singh, 36, of Coldharbour Lane in Hayes – plotted to buy cannabis wholesale from the gang and was jailed for five years for conspiracy to import class B drugs.

Urfan Khan, 38, of Cheshire Park in Bracknell is due to be sentenced for the same charge.

The drugs trafficking operation was uncovered when in April 2012 a Dutch lorry driver entered the UK at Dover in an HGV carrying 20 pallets of plastic pellets.

Officers found 6kg of cocaine at 81% purity and160kg of amphetamines stashed in a specially constructed compartment in the roof of the trailer.

After the discovery of the drugs, the gang tried to import 38kg of cannabis, using a method pioneered by a criminal gang in the Midlands.

However, the scheme – which involved using an electricity power station transformer to conceal the load – was discovered in November 2012.

The gang had lined the container with lead in a bid to foil detectors, the court heard.

Police recovered the drugs from the Gloucester area. The suspects were all arrested by detectives from Greater Manchester Police’s Serious Crime Division over several months – phones, documents and cash were also seized.

Sentencing, Judge Richard Mansell QC said:

“This was a professionally planned and well-executed importation – which so nearly saw a massive quantity of class A and B drugs find its way onto the streets of Manchester and Liverpool, causing the misery and devastation these drugs cause not only to addicts and their families, but the thousands affected by crime committed to finance these addictions.”

Detective Inspector Martin Hopkinson added:

“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. I do not think for a second that any of them thought about the devastating consequences the drugs they were bringing back could have.

"They just wanted to line their own pockets.

“However, thanks to the work of our detectives and all the agencies and police forces who assisted what was a European-wide investigation, we have effectively dismantled a very significant supply chain of drugs onto the streets of Manchester.”


Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors

Duncan Lewis criminal solicitors are available 24/7 365 days a year to advise at any stage of a criminal charge involving drugs offences, including trafficking drugs, intent to supply, possession – and drugs offences involving organised crime and Class A or Class B drugs.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide – and our criminal defence solicitors can usually reach a police station to advise on drugs offences within 45 minutes.

For expert legal advice on drugs offences and the law law, call Duncan Lewis criminal solicitors on 020 7923 4020.

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