Crime gang who hid cocaine in cheese included Calderdale men
Three Calderdale men have been sentenced for their part in a plot which involved smuggling drugs into the UK by hiding them in cheese.
A painstaking investigation by specialist detectives from West Yorkshire Police brought down the major criminal network who were distributing tons of cocaine smuggled into the UK in the dairy consignments.
Police say the sophisticated distribution network was supplying vast amounts of the drug throughout the north of England.
The consignments of cheese had been transported as commercial freight into Dover, and then to a legitimate distribution hub in Derby.
Refrigerated trucks collected the shrink-wrapped pallets of cheese and delivered them to a industrial unit in Halifax and others in Huddersfield, Cleckheaton and Blackburn.
Aiden McCullagh, from Brighouse, was shown to be managing two of the hubs - a unit in Whitacre Industrial Park, in Whitacre Street, Huddersfield, and another unit at Acorn Business Centre, in Law Street, Cleckheaton.
Ikraam Safdar, from Halifax, was shown to have rented a unit in Halifax which was also used as part of the operation.
Across these premises, McCullagh, with the assistance of Craig Asquith, from Wakefield, would unpackage the blocks of cocaine hidden within the large wheels of cheese and package them in brown cardboard boxes and black bin liners.
Once the drugs were ready for onward supply, a network of couriers would descend on the areas around these distribution hubs to collect their supplies.
At Whitacre Industrial Park and Acorn Business Centre, Lewis Ockendon, from Wakefield, and Umar Farooq, from Halifax, were trusted ‘lieutenants’ who would meet the other couriers nearby and take their vehicles from them.
They would drive the vehicles into the industrial units for them to be loaded with the allotted supplies of cocaine before returning the vehicles to the waiting couriers, who would then deliver the drugs to regional buyers.
Officers searched Safdar’s rented unit in Halifax and found 8kg of methamphetamine hidden in a wrapped pallet of car parts. When officers searched McCullagh’s unit at Whitacre Industrial Park, they found packaging linked to his role in removing the cocaine from the food commodities and repackaging it for onward distribution.
Craig Goulding, from Wakefield, was linked by phone contact with some of the others involved, and messages showed he was paid thousands to dispose of the waste food created.
McCullagh, Goulding and Asquith were found guilty at trial of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug and were sentenced in May this year. McCullagh, 58 of Mill Grove in Brighouse, and Goulding, 39 of Church Lane Avenue in Wakefield, each received 25-year prison sentences. Asquith, 44 of Gill Sike Grove in Wakefield, was jailed for ten years.
Farooq, 37 of Gladstone Road in Halifax, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply a controlled drug, and was sentenced to 15 years.
Ockendon, 36 of High Street in Wakefield, pleaded guilty to the same charge and was given 13 years and four months.
Also pleading guilty to the same charge were John Whittell, 43 of Spa Grove in Wakefield, who was sentenced to 12 years and nine months; David Jackson, 48 of Broadoak Avenue in Manchester, who was sentenced to 14 years and four months; and Ikraam Safdar, 44 of Willowfield Close in Halifax, who was sentenced to eight years and nine months.
Seven other men have also been jailed over the plot, and three more will be sentenced at a later date for conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Detective Inspector Kevin Daly, of West Yorkshire Police’s Protective Services Crime, said: “This was a vast and complex criminal operation involved in distributing huge quantities of cocaine that were being smuggled into the UK, mostly in what appeared to be legitimate consignments of cheese.
“The quantities of the drug involved make it the largest criminal enterprise that we as a force have taken down, and the success of this operation is testament to the hard work and dedication of the officers involved.
“We know only too well the damage that drugs do in our communities, where they fuel crime and serious violence, and the negative impact they have on the lives of individual users and their families.”