UK: Pair guilty of smuggling £55m of cocaine
A father and son from north Wales have been found guilty of trying to smuggle cocaine worth £55m into the UK.
Rex Newport, 58, his son Duncan Newport, 36, both of Dyffryn Ardudwy, Gwynedd, were charged along with Mark Reeves, 38, from Kidderminster and Louis Hillard, 57, of no fixed abode.
The four had denied attempting to import 651kg of the drug.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that the cocaine was found concealed in earth-moving machinery in 2002.
Rex and Duncan Newport, both directors of a plant and machinery company, and the two other men who were also found guilty, are due to be sentenced in June.
The convictions came at the end of Operation Elysian, a major drugs investigation by HM Customs.
Customs officers discovered the cocaine shipment concealed inside a bulldozer blade which had arrived at Felixstowe, Suffolk, from Ecuador, South America, in November 2002.
The consignment was allowed to continue its journey, under surveillance, to an industrial estate in Wolverhampton.
'Ingenious methods'
Customs officers raided the unit, finding Reeves and Hillard in the process of removing the concealed drugs.
The pair were arrested at the scene and Duncan and Rex Newport were arrested later the same day.
Two other men have also been arrested and prosecuted in Ecuador for their alleged part in the smuggling attempt.
Following the guilty verdicts, Customs Minister John Healey MP, said: "Customs have prevented a huge amount of cocaine reaching the streets of the UK.
"This latest bust shows how sophisticated customs must be to match modern drugs gangs, who use increasingly ingenious methods to smuggle drugs into this country".
'Painstaking work'
Customs' Assistant Chief Investigation Officer, Peter Hollier, added: "This was a well-organised and determined attempt to smuggle a huge quantity of cocaine into this country.
"These men went to great lengths to avoid detection, using false names, a variety of vehicles, public telephones, more than a dozen mobile phones and a complex system of codes to cover their tracks.
"They were well aware of the scale of their criminality.
"I would like to pay tribute to the painstaking work of the case team and the many other customs officers involved in stopping these drugs from reaching the streets and ruining countless lives."
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