WIREDGOV

A transport company owner and one of his truck drivers have been sentenced for conspiring together to import class A drugs worth more than £4 million - a plot which led to one of them being kidnapped by the other.

Antony Joy (above right), 47, from Hereford was arrested after Border Force staff at Immingham found over 24 kilos of cocaine and two kilos of heroin stuffed behind a load of carpet tiles in the lorry he was driving.

When Joy was released on bail the next day, the company owner, Paul Wilson (above left), 60, from Aintree, lured him to a meeting where he was abducted. After six days of being beaten and tortured Joy was dumped naked and injured in a street in Liverpool, and called police from a telephone box.

Wilson was later charged with being involved in the kidnap, a crime for which he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He admitted conspiring to import class A drugs. Wilson had made numerous unsuccessful attempts to contact Joy whilst he was being questioned by the NCA.

Joy denied the smuggling charge, but on Wednesday 11 November at Liverpool Crown Court he was found guilty.

The following day they were sentenced to 14 years each. Wilson’s sentence will run consecutively to his 12 year sentence for kidnap.

Mick Maloney, from the NCA’s north east border investigation team, said:

“The organised crime group involved in this importation were dangerous men who thought nothing of abducting and violently beating one of their own when they thought their shipment had gone missing.

“Through the course of this investigation we have worked extremely closely with Merseyside Police and Border Force, and we are grateful for their excellent support.

“Our investigation continues. We believe there are other members of this group still at large.

“Working with our law enforcement partners we are determined to find them, and to do all we can to disrupt the criminal networks involved in drug trafficking.”

Mark Robinson, Assistant Director of Border Force Yorkshire and Humber, said:

“Cocaine and heroin are destructive drugs which damage communities and ruin the lives of users. By stopping this smuggling attempt we prevented a significant amount of these harmful substances making it onto the UK’s streets.

“Border Force officers are at the forefront of the fight to keep illegal drugs out of the country. As this case demonstrates, we work closely with the National Crime Agency to ensure the criminals behind drug trafficking are caught and convicted.”

DCI Paul Hesketh from Merseyside Police, senior investigating officer in the Anthony Joy abduction case, said:

"Paul Wilson played an integral role in the kidnapping of Anthony Joy, who went on to endure days of suffering at the hands of several violent men who have yet to be brought to justice.

“The fact that he arranged this against his own employee and someone who regarded him as a friend demonstrates his utter ruthlessness as well as the murky world that both men operated in.

“Their sentencing for importing huge quantities of Class A drugs on top of Wilson’s 12 year prison term for Joy’s kidnap and torture shows the seriousness with which the courts view their crimes.

“Merseyside Police will continue to work alongside our colleagues in other law enforcement agencies to keep bringing serious organised crime groups to justice and to stop illegal drugs reaching the streets of the UK.”