14 TONNES of cocaine hidden in wheels of cheese smuggled by gang that brought £1.4BILLION of drugs into Britain
Wheels of cheese used to smuggle between four and 14 tonnes of cocaine into Britain by an organised crime group whose 18 members were convicted following West Yorkshire Police's biggest-ever drugs…Seized drugs and packaging from the investigation, in which the gang switched to hiding cocaine inside chocolate spread and frozen fish mince after a May 2023 raid exposed their cheese concealment method.A round of cheese with cocaine hidden inside, of the kind used by the gang, whose Blackburn hub was run by Saleem Chaudhri, sentenced to 27 years and six months for agreeing to move over 2,000kg of the drug.Boxes of cheese containing cocaine found at the Blackburn hub site, where the gang's operations were valued by the Crown Prosecution Service at between £400 million and £1.4 billion — potentially 11% of Britain's entire…
When police cracked open wheels of Gouda at a Lancashire hub in May 2023 and found 217kg of cocaine, the gang simply switched to chocolate spread and frozen fish mince, picking goods whose smell and density made the drugs harder to detect.
Zoe Nixon, Senior Crown Prosecutor, called it 'an industrial-scale criminal enterprise' funnelling drugs across the country.
Up to 11% of Britain's yearly cocaine intake came through this one gang, on Home Office estimates.
Mobile phone evidence traced contact between gang members and tracked consignments from the hubs onwards.
