LONDON: Nigerian national Patrick Udensi, 34, from Enfield, was arrested in January after Border Force staff at the Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre found cocaine in a package that had been sent to an address in north London.
The parcel, which had come from St Maarten in the Caribbean, led National Crime Agency officers to uncover a sophisticated smuggling operation, headed up by Udensi.
He was the kingpin in a network of criminals who had been involved in at least 77 different parcel deliveries of cocaine and cannabis – with a potential street value of about £1.8million – to 14 different addresses across north London.
Telephone and email records showed Udensi had used Skype, Yahoo Messenger, iMessage and WhatsApp to communicate with drug distributors in Africa, Asia and South America, advising them of names and addresses to send the parcels to.
He was found guilty on Tuesday of conspiring to import class A and class B drugs following a trial at Isleworth Crown Court, and the following day he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
A second man, John Arinze Nwosu, 42, from Edgbaston, Birmingham, a key organiser for the network, absconded from bail prior to trial, but was convicted in his absence and sentenced to 5-and-a-half years.
Ian Truby, senior investigating officer for the NCA’s Heathrow border investigation team, said: “This organised crime group used a ‘small but often’ method, smuggling packages of class A and B drugs which weighed anywhere between a few grammes and several kilos.
“Our investigation found evidence of 77 such importations, but in reality there were probably far more stretching back years.
“As we started intercepting packages and they failed to arrive at their destinations Udensi became increasingly agitated. By the time we arrested him he must have begun to suspect the game was up.
“Udensi was the ringleader, but Nwosu played an important role, organising a number of importations, and we are determined he should serve his sentence.
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