Man caught loading rolls of 'cocaine-filled fake grass' along Teesside dock
A man was caught red-handed loading rolls of fake grass he thought were filled with cocaine into a warehouse in a £120m drug smuggling conspiracy.
But Peter Lamb didn't realise his illicit cargo had been intercepted by Dutch customs officers on its way to the UK, who tipped off police here and watched him unloading the rolls in Stockton on May 20 last year.
(Image: NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY)
(Image: NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY)
When he returned the next day officers were waiting and arrested him.
Lamb, 66, was found to have started making frequent trips to the Netherlands in summer 2023 and set up two grass supply companies, but investigators found no evidence of either firm actually selling anything and believe he was meeting up with his co-conspirators.
The Stockton warehouse and another in Newcastle were searched, and a kilo block of cocaine and carpets of grass were found.
Some of the 60 rolls of grass found at the warehouses. (Image: NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY)
In total, he received 20 deliveries totalling 60 rolls of grass.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) calculated he conspired to import one-and-a-half tonnes of cocaine with a street value thought to be about £120m.
A kilo block of cocaine was found in the warehouse in Newcastle. (Image: NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY) Covert surveillance pictures captured Lamb, of Mayfair Gardens in Gateshead, on the forklift shifting the grass.
Peter Lamb has been jailed for 17 years. (Image: NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY)
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He admitted conspiring to import Class A drugs at Newcastle Crown Court in March and was back before the court to be sentenced today and was jailed for 17-years.
NCA senior investigating officer Al Mullen said: 'Artificial grass is one of the more unusual concealments I've seen used to smuggle cocaine but no matter what tactics criminals use, the NCA will find both the drugs and the importers.
'We caught Lamb red-handed and uncovered his year-long conspiracy to flood UK streets with one-and-a-half tonnes of the drug. Cocaine destroys communities and lives, but this joint operation with officers in the Netherlands has disrupted its supply in the UK.'
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