Police Con Perry, from Specialist Crime North, said: “The operation we’ve dismantled here is not some minor undertaking, involving a group of chancers – this is a highly organised criminal group who were supplying drugs on an industrial scale throughout the UK.”
A gang of semi-pro footballers ran an operation planning to supply £260 million of cocaine out of warehouses, police said.
The group were sentenced to more than 104 years at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and ketamine.
Detectives found that between April 10 and Oct 20 2022 the group had conspired to supply in excess of 2.7 tonnes of high-grade cocaine with an estimated street value of more than £260 million.
Officers stopped Luke Skeete, 36, in October 2022 as he drove a small panel van and discovered 8kg of cocaine in the vehicle. His arrest brought down a gang of criminals like “house of cards”, police said.
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