Latest news with #cocaine
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Lawn and order! Pensioner, 66, caught smuggling £120m of cocaine inside rolls of artificial grass is jailed for 17 years
A pensioner who was caught smuggling £120million worth of cocaine inside rolls of artificial grass has been jailed for 17 years. Peter Lamb, 66, was found to have to have smuggled one-and-a-half tonnes of cocaine, worth an estimated £120million on the street, over the course of a year. He was caught in May 2024 after taking a receipt of a lorry-load of fake grass, inside which were several custom-built rolls of fake grass that were meant to be filled with the Class A drug. The delivery was one of 20 he had taken into his hands over the span of 11 months. But unbeknown to Lamb, the last load he took had been ransacked by Dutch authorities, who removed the drugs several days prior. Cops in the Netherlands told the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the scheme, and upon Lamb receiving the delivery in Stockton-on-Tees, NCA officers found he used a forklist to move to rolls of fake grass to a warehouse. As he returned to the warehouse the following day, he was arrested by awaiting NCA officers. Following a search of the warehouse, as well as one in Newcastle, officers found a kilogram of cocaine alongside rolls of fake grass. And upon an investigation of Lamb's phone and paperwork, he was found to have made several trips to the Netherlands and set up two grass supply companies. But these firms were found to have sold no products, and it is believed the trips to Europe were done to meet co-conspirators. 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.' After pleading guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs at Newcastle Crown Court on March 26 2025, he was sentenced at the same court on June 27.
Times
8 hours ago
- Times
Marseilles drug police scandal has echoes of ‘French Connection' era
When the container ship OPS Hamburg docked in Marseilles on a morning in April 2023, officers from France's elite anti-drug force were lying in wait. They were sure their cunning sting would net one of Europe's biggest narco-traffickers. The US Drug Enforcement Administration had told them that buried in a container of bananas arriving from Cartagena, Colombia, there was a massive shipment of cocaine. It had been ordered by Mohamed Djeha, alias Mimo, the feared boss of Marseilles' Castellane clan. The Marseilles bureau of Ofast, the police agency created in 2020 to spearhead President Macron's war on drugs, had spent weeks setting up Operation Trident with gang informers and infiltration by undercover officers. The plan quickly unravelled. Tipped off, Mimo's men stayed away and the police found themselves guardians of 400kg of cocaine stashed in a heavily surveilled Mercedes truck in an open lorry park.
New York Times
9 hours ago
- New York Times
Cocaine Is the Fastest-Growing Illegal Drug Worldwide. Here's Why.
More people around the world are using illicit drugs than ever — more than 316 million in 2023. Marijuana is the most used drug, followed by opioids and amphetamines. But it is the cocaine market that continues to break records year after year. Global production reached a new high in 2023, racing to meet record demand and fueling new highs in cocaine-related deaths in many countries in recent years, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday. An estimated 25 million people used cocaine worldwide in 2023 — up from 17 million a decade earlier. Production jumped by 34 percent from 2022. Tracking the production and consumption of illicit drugs, including cocaine, is complex and time-consuming. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's annual World Drug Report, which this year includes data through 2023, is one of the few sources of global data on the illegal drug trade. Here's what it shows about the worldwide cocaine market. Where does cocaine come from? The coca plant, the main ingredient for cocaine, is primarily cultivated in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Colombia drove the recent increase in illegal cocaine production because of an expansion of coca cultivation areas and better yields from each acre. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pensacola man pleads guilty to laundering millions in cocaine money through casinos
A Pensacola man pleaded guilty to laundering millions of dollars through a cocaine trafficking scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced June 27. Rayvaughn Andrews pleaded to federal charges including conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, as well as money laundering. "Those who think they can profit and live lavish lifestyles off drug trafficking in the Northern District of Florida are sorely mistaken, and will soon find themselves in federal prison," said U.S. Attorney John Heekin. Andrews conspired to with others to distribute large amounts of cocaine between 2021 and 2024, which ended up on the streets of Escambia County. After receiving cash from selling millions in cocaine, he laundered $10 million through multiple casinos in Mississippi and Nevada. Andrews faces up to life in prison and the forfeiture of $40,000, along with a Chevrolet Corvette. This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola man Rayvaughn Andrews guilty of money laundering, drug sales
CTV News
11 hours ago
- CTV News
Meth, cocaine and thousands in cash seized in northern Alberta
RCMP seized 4.237 kilograms of methamphetamine, 1.589 kilograms of cocaine and just over $11,000 in Canadian cash after a traffic stop near Clairmont on June 21, 2025. (Supplied) More than six kilograms of drugs and thousands in cash were seized by RCMP during a traffic stop near Clairmont. RCMP said officers on proactive patrol pulled over a vehicle on June 21 and arrested the driver after seeing 'drug paraphernalia' inside. A search of the vehicle revealed more than four kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 1.5 kilograms of cocaine and $11,000 in cash, which officers believe to be proceeds of crime. 'This sizable seizure is estimated to represent as much as 6,000 individual doses, a volume with the potential to deeply affect community health and safety' said RCMP Cpl. Pasquarelli. The 50-year-old driver, a Grande Prairie man, has been charged with: possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking; possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking; possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000; and two counts of failing to comply with a release order He will appear at the Alberta Court of Justice in Grande Prairie on Monday.
