15 Men Jailed for Cocaine Plot Hidden in Cheese
Fifteen men have been jailed this week for an international conspiracy to supply up to £1.4bn worth of cocaine. The plot ran from October 2022 to December 2023 and ended with the biggest bust in the history of West Yorkshire Police.
The cocaine came from South America and was hidden in everyday foods. It was later described as a "vast and complex criminal operation".
Cheese, chocolate spread and fish mince
Industrial units in Huddersfield, Cleckheaton and Halifax in West Yorkshire, and in Blackburn, Lancashire, served as cover. Shrink-wrapped pallets were sorted there, next to legitimate businesses. Cocaine was cut out of blocks of gouda and later other foods, then repackaged in cardboard boxes or black bin bags.
The drugs reached the UK via Belgium and arrived at Dover as commercial freight. They went on to a legitimate distribution hub in Derby before reaching the units. Prosecutors said there were sometimes several pick-ups in a day at one site.
Couriers from the Midlands, Lancashire and the North East parked near the estates. Their cars were taken to the units, loaded and returned, then driven off to distribute the drugs across the north of England. Police said this meant even people inside the group did not know the full picture.
Some blocks recovered by police carried "cartel stamps", brand logos meant to signal quality to buyers.
Who was paid what
Prosecutors said extracting the cocaine from two pallets paid £3,000, with £1,000 for every extra pallet. Aiden McCullagh, 58, from Brighouse, unpacked and repackaged the drugs. He was thought to have been paid £135,000.
Craig Goulding, 39, from Wakefield, was paid "thousands" to dispose of waste food through his waste management business. He was jailed in May for 25 years.
Harry Johnson, 26, from Leicester, had no previous dealings with the police but held a middle-management role organising deliveries, collections and payments. He had worked at a high street optician's and lived at home at the time. He brought in his older brother Darren, 31. Johnson's barrister called it "a pretty serious, if not spectacular, entry into the criminal justice system".
How police closed in
The investigation began when officers stopped a car in the East End Park area of Leeds in January 2023 and seized cocaine and ecstasy worth £2m. Detectives on Operation Grasmount then spent many months building the case.
A distribution hub in Lancashire was raided in May 2023. Saleem Chaudhri and courier Rieadul Mohabath were arrested and convicted. The gang then "changed tactics", according to the Crown Prosecution Service, and hid drugs in chocolate spread and frozen fish mince because of their smell and density.
In June 2023 a lorry driver from Belgium was arrested at Toddington Services on the M1 in Bedfordshire. Officers found 156kg of drugs in his trailer and 36kg in a car, worth £19.2m in total. Further arrests in December 2023 ended the conspiracy.
The exact amount supplied is unknown. The CPS estimates four to 14 tonnes, with a street value of £400m to £1.4bn. Three more men are still to be sentenced. Det Insp Kevin Daly said: "It's the biggest investigation West Yorkshire Police has ever had, without a doubt."
Source: BBC News