Smugglers headed by leader who enjoyed 'lavish lifestyle' found guilty after trying to sneak drugs through Portsmouth

The organised gang, operating out of the West Midlands, a furniture company as a drugs front, shipping in nearly two tonnes of cocaine, heroin and ketamine. Drugs involved were worth at least £135m, according to West Midlands Police.

They have now been sentenced. Court heard Jonathan Arnold, 29, of Cremorne Road, Sutton Coldfield, was the ringleader – enjoying a life of luxury luxury on the back of his drugs importation empire. This included trips to Dubai where he would film himself driving a Ferrari, court heard.

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The gang would use dummy loads of furniture to hide packages of drugs in lorries and vans. Some shipments were concealed in hidden compartments.

Police officers from the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Mercia forces worked with the Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) to thwart the gang’s operations. In January last year, on of the network’s couriers made a drug run to Europe in a Real Estate Removals van.

The vehicle was stopped and searched by French Customs’ officers, who discovered 63 blocks of cocaine weighing 71kg and 99 bags of ketamine weighing 101kg. West Midlands Police said this haul had a UK wholesale value of £2,561,900.

The gang then attempted to bring in 1,477kg of cocaine, with a street value of around £118m, into Portsmouth. Dutch police seized the shipment in April 2022.

Substances were hidden in among bananas onboard a ship which had travelled from Colombia to Vlissingen in the Netherlands. The vessel continued on to Portsmouth after the seizure.

Connor Fletcher, 25, of Bridgnorth Road, Wolverhampton, travelled to a town near Amsterdam in June 2022 as a courier. He returned with 60kg of cocaine hidden in two secret compartments built into the floor of the lorry.

Police had linked Fletcher to the gang, with the Border Force detaining him. Arnold admitted to four charges of conspiracy to import and supply drugs – cocaine, heroin and ketamine. Fletcher was found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine after driving into Dover from Calais.

James Jenkins, 25, of Lichfield Street, Tamworth, supervised the operation and was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, but not guilty of importing cocaine. Humayan Sadiq, 43, of Manchester, planned to move the cocaine – due to be brought into Portsmouth from Colombia via Holland. He was found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine.

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Detective Chief Superintendent Jenny Skyrme said: ‘We can’t underestimate the scale and significance of this criminal organisation. This is the biggest drugs case that we have ever dealt with as an organisation. The gang was operating at the highest levels of criminality, bringing in industrial quantities of drugs to sell on the streets of the West Midlands and beyond.

‘As the head of the crime group, Jonathan Arnold enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, driving luxury cars and enjoying trips to Dubai. He gave the impression that he was a legitimate businessman with a small firm which moved furniture and had a turnover of £50,000 a month.

‘The reality was that he was arranging tens of millions of pounds worth of drugs to be imported into the UK from Europe and South America, which would have gone on to cause untold misery and significant harm to communities.’