Courier who acted as 'buffer' in slick crime ring fled to Marbella for years after Manchester Airport drugs bust
A courier acted as a ‘buffer’ between drug dealers and customers in a slick operation which saw hundreds of kilos of cocaine imported into the UK. Craig Simpson was tracked by officers from the National Crime Agency collecting crates containing the class A drug before driving it up to Manchester Airport.
He said Simpson was in a ‘position of trust and responsibility’, and said the crates were being moved to the wholesalers for distribution.Mr Brown said Simpson had the tracking information for the crates and was able to collect them from the airport, often driving to Manchester from Middlesbrough. One of the crates was stopped by officials on June 15 2017, but Simpson did not turn up to collect it.
Mitigating, David Taylor said his client was in a trusted position but didn’t know that cocaine was in the crates, and suggested he had a lower level of culpability. Judge Baxter disagreed and said Simpson played a pivotal role. Sentencing, Judge Baxter said: “The NCA were suspicious this operation was ongoing and began their investigations. They found that drugs were coming in from Holland flying with Sovereign Speed and when they landed in the UK, they were being sent up to Manchester Airport through Send Direct, essentially the crates were being collected by the ‘customer’ within the hour of it landing. This was a slick operation.
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