Displaying items by tag: Cocaine

Sajid Ali, 56, from Hall Green, Birmingham, has been convicted of leading a criminal gang in a £11 million drug smuggling operation. With four accomplices, he orchestrated a plan to import Class A drugs concealed in a shipment of bananas from Ecuador. The cocaine was hidden inside the roof of a shipping container, which was to be moved from London to an industrial estate in Coventry for extraction and distribution. The National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested the men in April 2022, and seized a total of 139 kilograms of cocaine, valued at up to £11,120,000. Ali was considered too senior to handle the drugs directly and fled to Türkiye when he couldn't reach his associates. He was later arrested at Heathrow Airport when attempting to return to the UK. He denied involvement, but evidence, including burner phone communications, proved otherwise. A successful collaboration between the CPS and the NCA brought him to justice. Proceedings to confiscate the gang's illegal profits have now commenced.

The US Secret Service is investigating how cocaine was found at the White House, with visitor logs and footage combed for clues. The discovery in the West Wing, which contains the Oval Office and other working areas for presidential aides and staff, led to a brief evacuation. Secret Service agents found the powder in a storage facility routinely used by White House staff and guests to store mobile phones. White House staff are permitted to give tours of some parts of the West Wing to friends and family. Visitors who are not accredited staff must store mobile phones and other personal belongings in cubicles.

On 12 July the Gardaí seized €1.1m worth of cocaine and arrested three men at Dublin Airport with support from German and South American police and revenue officers. Investigations are still ongoing. The previous day, an Uzi machine gun, silencer and two magazines of ammunition were found in Dublin, the second such discovery since March. Before 2012 the guns were issued to the Gardai. The weapons will be analysed to establish if they were used in any recent attacks. No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing.

Border Force stopped a lorry on its way to Kent through the Channel Tunnel carrying cocaine with a street value of £33m concealed in a 418kg load of frozen onion rings. Lorry driver Piotr Perzenowski, 30, from Poland, was charged with smuggling Class A drugs and is remanded in custody until 13 December. See Also appearing in court on that day is a 19-year-old suspected county line drug dealer caught by Kent police, who seized heroin, cocaine, cash and criminal property.  Also, ‘Happy Families’ smuggler Michael Sloan was jailed this week after heroin worth £2m was seized from his camper van as he and his family returned to Dover Eastern Docks from Europe. Forensic experts said the heroin was between 44% and 59% pure, and once adulterated would value £1.98 million. Heroin is closely linked to county lines’ type exploitation and violence.

29 April was a day of chaos and violence after opposition leader Juan Guaidó called for a military uprising in Caracas and urged supporters to take to the streets to force his rival Nicolás Maduro from power. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said that Maduro had told America that he would leave Venezuela and live as an exile in Cuba and had an airplane on the tarmac, ready to leave: then Russia convinced him to stay. Recently Russian military personnel entered Venezuela to keep its sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missiles operational despite its crumbling infrastructure and frequent power failures. Also Tareck El Aissami, Maduro’s closest confidant, is being investigated by the intelligence agency about helping Hezbollah militants into the country, partnering with a drug lord, and shielding 140 tons of chemicals to be used for cocaine production - making him a rich man as Venezuela spiralled into poverty. See

Colombia has announced a crop substitution programme to eradicate the raw material for cocaine. The Farc rebel group relied on cocaine production to fund its insurgency and controlled much of the industry, but a joint programme between rebels and the government will offer farmers monthly payments if they voluntarily destroy their crops. They will also be offered loans and guidance about planting alternatives such as fruit trees and cacao. This was agreed as part of Colombia's peace accord, which was finally ratified in December. The government will invest $340m (£271m), which would benefit 50,000 families. The target is to destroy 100,000 hectares this year, to bring coca levels down. But the preferred strategy is winning over the estimated 64,000 peasant families dependent on the coca trade. ‘This is much more cost-efficient, and furthermore ensures that territories are transformed and people's lives are changed’, said a government representative.