Gang jailed for smuggling £118m worth of cocaine into the UK from China

A criminal gang responsible for importing cocaine worth an estimated street value of £118m into the UK have been jailed for a total of more than 40 years.

Andreas Leonidou, 35 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs before a trial was due to start last year and was sentenced to 18 months in prison at Northampton Crown Court.

George Charalambous, 35, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

Leonidou and Charalambous’ criminal activity came to light during a major investigation by officers into a man named Daniel Taylor.

Taylor was sentenced to 18 years for masterminding one of the largest ever illegal importations of Benzocaine into the UK.

He was convicted of importing 2.7 tonnes of the cocaine cutting agent worth £118 million.

The scale of the operation was uncovered in early 2014 after Border Force intercepted a 300 kilogram shipment of Benzocaine from a company in China and destined for Acuchem Ltd - a company set up by Taylor.

Taylor’s defence had been that he had sold most of the benzocaine to a man named Alexander Shennan from Bedford.

During the course of the investigation officers discovered Taylor was also sourcing and importing steroids to supply within the UK, to which Leonidou and Charalambous were connected.

Communications data linked Taylor to the importation, supply and purchase of anabolic steroids to and from James Lewis.

Shennan was found guilty at trial of four counts relating to the production and supply of Class A, B and C drugs, and sentenced to 19 years in prison in October 2016.

James Lewis from Rushden pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to supply Class C drugs. He was sentenced to two years in prison.