5 million of cocaine into Kent fields on EU referendum day
Three international drug smugglers who organised for 2.5 million of cocaine to be dropped out of a light aircraft into a field in Kent on the day of the EU referendum vote have been jailed for nearly 40 years.
Jonathan Hart, 50, Andrew Barrett, and Michael Mealing,
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Mealing and Barrett were seen by undercover National Crime Agency officers a week earlier meeting in the beer garden of a Rochester pub, looking at documents about the light aircraft and ordnance survey maps of Kent.
They carried out a reconnaissance trip to the drop off point, then as the country went to the polls to vote out of the European Union, a plane flew over a field near Faversham, Kent, and dropped off the drugs shipment.
Mealing and Hart picked up 31kg package of cocaine, of up to 84 per cent purity, packed into three plastic fuel cans and loaded them into the back of their waiting Land Rover. However, NCA officers were lying in wait and swooped a short time later.
Barrett was arrested later the same day as he transferred the contents of the gang's "stash house" to an associate's home in Garston near Watford, the Old Bailey heard.
Officers found 15kgs of cannabis, worth 150,000,
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They also recovered nearly a kilo of class A drug MDMA, another 18 kilograms of cocaine, and 122,000 in cash.
Judge Stephen Kramer QC today ruled father of three Barrett, who was heavily involved in the meeting with the pilot and went on the reconnaissance trip to the drop site, played a leading role in the drug smuggling operation as he jailed him for 16 years.
He sentenced Mealing to 12 and a half years in prison, and jailed Hart, who has previous convictions for drug dealing, for ten years and nine months.
"This was a sophisticated and commercial operation in which you all played important parts",
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"A consignment of cocaine was imported into this country it was expertly concealed in three sealed plastic containers.
The plot was first exposed when Mealing and Barrett met the Belgian pilot, who remains at large, in a pub on June 15, looking at ordnance survey maps and a picture of the light aircraft used in the drop.
The three men met again the following day and visited the proposed drop off point.
Prosecutor Heidi Stonecliffe said maps were later recovered with several locations marked with the words "good landing".
NCA lay in wait on June 23 as Mealing and Hart picked up the drugs, and moved in on the pair's Land Rover when they pulled into a car park in Faversham.
"Once Mr Barrett knew that Hart and Mealing had been arrested, he decided to remove from any location he was connected with evidence tying him to both the conspiracy as well as the supply of significant commercial quantities and drugs.
"He effectively moved his stash lock stock and barrel in a van to somewhere where he thought it would not be found."
Barrett argued he had a significant role in the plot but was not a leading participant, telling the court a person he refused to name had offered him money to help with the smuggling operation.
But Judge Kramer said Barrett had tried to "play down your role, minimising your involvement", and said he must have had a close link to the source of the drugs.
Steve McIntyre, from the NCA's Border Policing Command,
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"They attempted to exploit perceived weaknesses in border controls, but working with the police and Border Force we are actively targeting criminals who try to use general aviation and small airfields as a way into the UK."
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