WIREDGOV

Reporting restrictions were lifted recently on a four-year investigation into two organised crime groups that tried to use a corrupt shipping company manager at Portsmouth Docks to import cocaine.

Since 2011, nine people from Hampshire, Kent, Essex and London have received sentences totalling over 140 years for the conspiracies.

A tenth man, Audley Powell, aged 56, from Catford, London, was sentenced recently at Winchester Crown Court to eight-and-a-half years. 

Both crime groups had targeted Shaun Wilson, aged 46, from Portsmouth, a corrupt dock worker who knew how to bypass security procedures.

The groups met separately with Wilson on numerous occasions in service stations, pubs and parks to plan importations of cocaine, unaware that NCA investigators were watching. Each shipment was timed to coincide with Wilson's shifts so he could remove the drugs from the docks without detection.

Neither group managed to get their plans off the ground. One failed when their first batch, totalling 26 kilos, which had been concealed in a container of pineapples on a ship from Costa Rica, was seized during an operation in November 2010. All group members were arrested.

The capture of Wilson during the operation prevented the second group from succeeding with their plan to import cocaine hidden in a container of bananas. Further arrests were made in March 2011 and those involved were later convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine. 

Wilson was found guilty in September 2011 of the first conspiracy to import cocaine and was jailed for 14 years. He pleaded guilty to the second conspiracy and received a concurrent eight-year sentence.

Tenth man Powell, who was part of the second group, was on the run until November 2013 when investigators located him in Jamaica and brought him back to the UK. He pleaded guilty in January this year.

Gerry McGowan, National Crime Agency Operations Manager, said:

"Wilson abused his position of trust by providing the crime groups with details of suitable ships, routes and times. He was going to ensure he was on duty to guarantee safe removal of the drugs.

"The long term plan was to import vast quantities of cocaine on a regular basis.

"Protecting our borders is a priority for the NCA. We will be relentless in pursuing criminals who try to bring drugs into the country, however long it takes, and wherever they try to hide."

Among the crime group members jailed for the 26-kilo importation were Roy Godber, aged 64, from Rainham, Essex, and David Roberts, aged 61, from Romford, Essex, who both absconded during their trial in September 2011. They were convicted in their absence and each received 20 years.

After a year-long hunt investigators tracked them down in Malta and they were extradited in 2013 after serving time for possession of false passports.

The three other men sentenced in connection with the 26-kilo importation were Jason Flisher, aged 43, from Folkestone, Kent (16 years); Richard Edwards, aged 51, from Barking, London (20 years); and Eric Ward, aged 51, from Portsmouth (10 years).

The remaining members of the second group to receive prison terms were Errol Heibner, aged 69, from Bow, London (14 years); Donald Chambers, aged 55, from Charlton, London (13 years); and Norman Burton, aged 57, from Catford, London (14 years).               

As part of the wider investigation, two men from Rainham in Essex were arrested at the Channel Tunnel as they were about to leave the UK. They were in a car which had £300,000 in cash concealed within a purpose built compartment underneath the boot. The men were later convicted of money laundering offences.

Further information

- Surveillance footage of a planning meeting involving Shaun Wilson, Errol Heibner and Norman Burton at the Devil’s Punch Bowl Café in Hindhead is available from NCA's Youtube channel

- Mugshots of the ten men jailed, plus a picture of the cocaine and the car cash concealment are available on the NCA’s Flickr channel