A high-level cocaine importer was today jailed for more than 13 years after helping smuggle a secret haul of Class A drugs into the UK using a ‘Trojan Horse’ car.
James Gradwell, 24, went with an accomplice to collect a 6kg package from suppliers on the border of France and Belgium and drove a Seat Leon with the stash hidden inside.
The gang, four of whom have already been jailed for 35 years, were caught after police intercepted their first consignment in Crosby , Merseyside.
But police were sure this was only the start of a regular monthly operation, possibly bringing to Britain as much as ‘16 bits’, slang for a kilo, every 30 days.
Messages on a seized Blackberry phone suggested the conspirators had hopes of flooding the UK with even more – up 24kg of cocaine a month. Judge Norman Wright told Liverpool Crown Court they were using a: “specially adapted vehicle as a Trojan Horse for the drugs”.
Liverpool gang caught trying to flood the UK with high purity cocaine. From left to right: William Marsh, Christopher Corry, Jordan Talbot and Ryan McQueen.
The accomplices used a telephone, nicknamed ‘PGP’ – standing for ‘pretty good privacy’ – to exchanges messages about their £1.25m plot.
Some emails referred to a ‘Pie car’, which prosecutor Ian Harris said was a: “vehicle set up to hide material it shouldn’t”.
The messages read: “When’s the new Pie car ready?
“If we can spin{sell on} more, lad, then so be it.
“Let’s get a solid month under our belt.”
Another message said: “I’ll be back in with you Monday, I’ll sort Gradwell’s wages tomorrow, lad, and take yours out of it.
“Be nice to get 6{kilos} every week and have them spun in time to work again the following Tuesday.”
On January 30, 2014, Gradwell was stopped by UK Border Agency workers while driving the Seat Leon in Coquelles, France, and the secret ‘hide’ was discovered during a search.
The cocaine was inside the transmission tunnel, at the front of the car.
Cash, a small quantity of cocaine, two mobile phones and key paperwork were found, some of it wrapped in a pair of grey Next boxer shorts.
Today, Judge Wright jailed Gradwell to 13 years and seven months, telling how cocaine ‘brought misery, dependency and sometimes death’ to users.
He added: “There were tell-tale snippets (on the Blackberry) of what the conspirators envisaged, to get six kilos of cocaine a week.
“Once the drugs were obtained, he (Gradwell) distanced himself from it.
“This clearly was a planned commercial enterprise. The drug exchange occurred on the France/Belgium border but they may have been sourced from another country.
“But the defendant did not bring the drugs into this country, he kept his distance and a lesser person was tasked with bringing them back.”
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Gradwell, of no fixed abode, teamed up with Christopher Corry, 41, of Halifax Crescent, Thornton , who got 11-and-a-half years; Ryan McQueen, 32, of Laurel Drive, Laurel Vale, County Armagh, who got six years; Jordan Talbot, 22, of Elson Road, Formby, who received six-and-a-half years and William Marsh, 28, of Rock Lane, Melling , who was locked up for ten years and eight months.
Gradwell, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to supplying Class A drugs, was a major player in that gang, prosecutors said, who boasted of quaffing champagne and sniffing ‘Charlie’ on a ferry as he journeyed to the continent on a drugs trip.
They were clearly optimistic about their business plans, the court heard, with one message between them saying: “Happy days… we’ll have a good system going, we’re gonna get a proper stash car for over here soon as well, lad, then we’re tight when we work.”
Over the course of the conspiracy, the gang travelled to Turkey, France, Spain, Holland and Dubai as between them they went abroad to arrange couriers to smuggle high purity cocaine back to Liverpool.
The cocaine was initially recorded at 75% purity which had the potential to be mixed with adulterants to bulk it out, and maximise profits.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/