The lorry containing the drugs - hidden in bags of basmati rice - was intercepted by police at an M6 service station
Detectives intercepted a lorry containing £300 million worth of drugs in what police have said is the ‘UK’s largest mainland drugs seizure’. The huge drugs bust followed a covert operation by Greater Manchester Police acting on intelligence.
Craig Parr, who was said to have led the logistics team, was jailed for 16-and-a-half years, while Andrew Tait, who acted as ‘muscle’ and offered organisational support, was locked up for 18 years. Manchester Crown Court heard that a huge quantity of heroin, 785 kilos, and 294 kilos of ketamine was imported into the UK by sea through Felixstowe port in the south east of England.
About two weeks earlier, a man from Wigan named Stephen King had hired a van from Salford Van Hire. He would later be caught by police driving the van, with the huge load of drugs in the back. King denied wrongdoing and has since died. Surveillance officers took pictures of Parr as he secured the straps of the load within the lorry. Prosecutors said the proposed final destination for the drugs was Moss Side farm in Lancashire, near Bickerstaffe. But the HGV, being driven by King, was being monitored by police.
Stephen King, then aged 44, of Pipit Avenue, Newton-Le-Willows, went on trial accused of the same offences and denied the charges. A first trial into the case had to be aborted in 2021 and he died before a second trial was heard. In a statement to police following his arrest, he said that he had collected packages but that denied knowing that they contained drugs.
Gareth Roberts, for Tait, said that the defendant hadn’t initially been aware of the ‘magnitude’ of the drugs involved. He said Tait had been recruited as ‘muscle’ for ‘minimal reward’.
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