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14 TONNES of cocaine hidden in wheels of cheese smuggled by gang that brought £1.4BILLION of drugs into Britain

14 TONNES of cocaine hidden in wheels of cheese smuggled by gang that brought £1.4BILLION of drugs into Britain
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.
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…
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…

West Yorkshire Police's largest ever drugs operation has ended with 15 men jailed after a South American-backed conspiracy smuggled 4.5 tonnes of cocaine into Britain hidden inside 123,568kg of Gouda cheese between October 2022 and December 2023. The haul had a street value exceeding £450m; it entered the UK via Dover as commercial freight, with refrigerated lorries carrying the pallets to industrial units in Huddersfield, Cleckheaton, Halifax and Blackburn. Eighteen people were convicted across two trials, with the last three sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Friday.

The inquiry began after police seized cocaine and ecstasy worth £2m in Leeds in 2023, a discovery that led detectives to the cheese-import network.

Aiden McCullagh, 58, of Brighouse, was paid an estimated £135,000 to extract the drugs from the cheese blocks and repackage them — at £3,000 per two pallets and £1,000 for each additional one.

Some cocaine blocks bore cartel brand stamps, and the gang ran the Blackburn hub through the Yaseen Business Centre, with Saleem Chaudhri overseeing distribution across several regions.

MoreBBC News - EnglandHow a plot to smuggle cocaine in cheese and chocolate spread was smashedMessenger Newspapers£450m cheese cocaine conspiracy smuggled drugs in GoudaLancashire Telegraph£450m cocaine plot used Blackburn unit to unpack drugs hidden in Gouda cheese - Lancashire TelegraphCoventry LiveMoment cops uncover £450m cocaine plot hidden inside cheese wheels as Coventry man jailed
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