Four members of a gang that plotted to import £20,000,000 worth of cocaine in frozen fish deliveries bound for a London market have been jailed.
The four men were sentenced for conspiracy to import Class A drugs at Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London on Friday. Their sentences ranged from 13 years to 22 years.
Billingsgate Market shipment plan
Samuel Tokeley, 57, of Alicante, Spain, and Nicholas Shilling, 63, of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, were each jailed for 22 years.
Scott Richards, 51, of Wickford, Essex, was sentenced to 14-and-a-half years, while Scott Unwin, 52, of Dagenham, Essex, was jailed for 13 years.
Tokeley, Unwin and Shilling plotted to import approximately 600kg of cocaine hidden in frozen fish shipments from South America. Unwin’s legitimate fish business at Billingsgate Market was intended to receive the load, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The importation never happened, although encrypted messages showed the group discussing payments, shipping documentation, logistics and contacts in Ecuador responsible for sourcing the cocaine, the Metropolitan Police reported.
EncroChat messages
The scheme was uncovered after encrypted conversations were spotted on the now-dismantled EncroChat platform.
Recovered messages included discussions about moving cocaine and ketamine, handling large sums of cash and cryptocurrency, and using legitimate businesses and transport routes to conceal the group’s activities.
The investigation also uncovered separate conspiracies to import industrial quantities of ketamine. Police reported that messages revealed plans for hundreds of kilograms to be sourced, processed on the continent and imported into the UK for wholesale distribution.
Detective Chief Inspector Dean Grafton, of the Met’s specialist crime unit, said: “The defendants believed that encrypted communication platforms would protect them as they discussed vast quantities of drugs, laundering criminal profits and exploiting legitimate businesses to facilitate their offending.”
Source: Metro News
