Gang who tried to STEAL £80m of cocaine from a lorry while its driver stopped for a coffee are jailed for 47 years

Published 4 November 2026, 15:45

• Detective Inspector Dean Grafton, who led the Met inquiry, said the gang 'hoped to make millions by selling cocaine across the UK'.
• Gang member Michael Weston, 57, texted a friend a BBC report on the bust, moaning he was 'skint' for Christmas.
• Craig Le-Mare, 36, fled Britain after the seizure but was arrested at Gatwick Airport in January 2025.

Three members of a drug smuggling gang have been jailed for a combined 47 years after attempting to steal 780kg of cocaine — worth £80 million on the street — from a lorry whose driver had stopped for a coffee.

Craig Le-Mare, 36, of no fixed abode, was convicted at the Old Bailey and sentenced to 20 years.

Kelly Robertson, 46, of Peregrine Close, Watford, pleaded guilty and received 15 years.

Michael Weston, 57, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years and nine months.

The cocaine had been hidden inside a shipping container among 29 pallets of steel furniture parts, sealed before leaving Mexico on 30 September 2021 and arriving at Felixstowe port on 12 November 2021.

Financial records showed that on the same day, gang members had checked into a budget hotel in Ipswich, rented a van and had sizeable food deliveries brought up to their rooms while they tracked the shipment, according to the Metropolitan Police.

On 26 November 2021, the gang trailed the lorry for 125 miles in three cars — a black Ford Mondeo, a grey Vauxhall Astra and a white BMW — from the haulage yard from 6.02am.

Weston texted his partner at 6.31am: "things are happening for me v soon."

At 8.20am the lorry stopped in a layby on Lilliput Road, Northampton, where the driver stepped out to buy a coffee from a burger van.

The gang moved in, blocked the lorry, broke into the container and began loading large wrapped packages into a grey Transit van.

Bystanders spotted them and they fled, leaving seven holdalls of cocaine behind in the lorry.

Northamptonshire Police found the abandoned Transit van within two hours, recovering a further 11 holdalls — 18 in total.

As they fled, the gang switched cars, changed number plates, split up and even falsely reported the Transit van as stolen in a bid to avoid detection.

Forensic analysis of their phones later proved their involvement.

Evidence from Weston's phone revealed he had sent a friend a text message containing a link to a BBC news report about the bust, complaining after news of the seizure broke that he was "skint" for Christmas.

Robertson was arrested on 14 December 2023.

Le-Mare fled the UK after the seizure but was arrested at Gatwick Airport on 25 January 2025.

The Met investigation was headed by Detective Inspector Dean Grafton, who described the case as one that "exposed an intricately planned operation, where the defendants hoped to make millions by selling cocaine across the UK."

He added that "drugs fuel criminality and rip families and communities apart."

Assistant Chief Constable Emma James of Northamptonshire Police said the swift initial response by her officers helped "secure crucial evidence and disrupt the criminal group's plans."