LONDON: Two dealers who masterminded a major drugs import operation have been jailed after a shipment of cocaine, heroin and cannabis worth £4.75 million was shipped to Birmingham Airport.
Essex businessmen Gary Vick, 58, and Paul Knight, 52, were tracked down after the consignment was discovered by Border Force officers in March 2013.
The haul was being carried in 12 boxes transported by courier from the Netherlands.
They contained more than 90 kilos of class A and B substances, including heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis, and the contraband was tracked by investigators as the load was delivered to a storage unit in Essex.
Gary Vick who has been jailed for smuggling drugs through Birmingham Airport
At the warehouse, Vick was on the phone to his accomplice when he was arrested.
Twenty other consignments, weighing a total of around 1.7 tonnes, had also been shipped from the Netherlands in the preceding two months. Phone evidence showed both men were at or near the site on the days the consignments were delivered.
Knight vanished, but was located in October 2013 following an appeal by the National Crime Agency on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme.
Some of the £4.75 million of drugs smuggled by Paul Knight and Gary Vick through Birmingham Airport
He was jailed for 10 years, while Vick was handed a six-year prison sentence.
National Crime Agency commander Jacque Beer said: “This has been a long and painstaking investigation, but it has resulted in the imprisonment of two men who were heavily involved in importing drugs into the UK.
“Knight and Vick acted as wholesalers, using the fast parcel courier system to bring in the drugs and then distributing them on to dealers around the south east.
Paul Knight who has been jailed for smuggling drugs through Birmingham Airport
“The load recovered in March 2013 on its own would have had a potential street value of almost £4.75 million, but we estimate that these men were likely to have been involved in importing tens of millions of pounds worth.”
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