Gang posing as furniture removal firm smuggled £135m of drugs into UK
28.07.2023 - 15:57
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A gang which smuggled tonnes of drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and ketamine , into the UK worth more than £135million posing as a furniture removal firm have been jailed. A Manchester man involved in the operation has been jailed for 27-years.
The gang's leader, Jonathan Arnold, boasted about his wealth by posting to social media showing him wearing a Rolex watch and driving a Ferrari while on holiday in Dubai. The 30-year-old gave the impression he ran a legitimate small furniture moving firm with a turnover of more than £50,000 a month.
Arnold used the money from smuggling more than two-tonnes of the drugs into the UK to fund a lavish lifestyle. This included spending tens of thousands on cosmetic surgery and dental work.
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The gang would hide drugs in their shipments by using dummy loads of furniture to hide packages in lorries and vans. Some of these had hidden compartments to conceal the shipments.
The gang's downfall began in January 2022, when one of their couriers made a drug run to Europe in a Real Estate Removals van. His van was searched by French Customs' officers who found 63 blocks of cocaine weighing 71kg along with 99 bags of ketamine weighing 101kg. The drugs had a UK wholesale value of £2,561,900.
A police investigation had been launched at this point linking this courier to the gang and they were arrested by Border Force on their return. The biggest single seizure came in April last year, when the gang tried to bring 1,477kg of cocaine with a street value of around £118million into Portsmouth.
The drugs were found hidden among bananas and were seized by Dutch police officers on a ship which had travelled