Seven members of a drugs network that smuggled 4.5 tonnes of narcotics hidden inside wheels of cheese through Dover have been jailed, as part of an operation with a street value exceeding £450 million.
On Friday, three of the 18 individuals convicted for their involvement were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court. Four additional defendants received prison sentences earlier in the week. A total of 18 people have been found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine after two trials that commenced last year. Reporting restrictions remained in place until both trials concluded.
Investigation and distribution network
The probe began after cocaine and ecstasy valued at £2 million was seized in Leeds in 2023, leading West Yorkshire Police to expose a sophisticated distribution operation. Investigators discovered that an organised crime group had imported 123,568kg of cheese into Britain between December 2022 and April 2023.
The cheese shipments had been brought in as commercial freight through Dover, then transported to a legitimate distribution centre in Derby. Refrigerated lorries collected the shrink-wrapped pallets of cheese and delivered them to industrial premises in Huddersfield, Cleckheaton and Halifax in West Yorkshire, and Blackburn in Lancashire.
Two of the distribution hubs were overseen by Aiden McCullagh, while one was operated by Saleem Chaudhri. Ikraam Safdar was revealed to have leased a unit at a car wash on South Parade in Halifax, which served as another hub for the criminal enterprise.
Extraction and courier operations
At these locations, McCullagh, Chaudhri and Craig Asquith would extract blocks of cocaine concealed within enormous wheels of cheese before wrapping them in brown cardboard boxes and black bin bags. When the narcotics were prepared for distribution, a web of couriers spanning West Yorkshire, Lancashire, the West Midlands and the North East would converge on the vicinity of these supply centres to pick up their consignments.
At Whitacre Industrial Park in Huddersfield and Acorn Business Centre in Cleckheaton, Lewis Ockenden and Umar Farooq acted as reliable "lieutenants", rendezvousing with fellow couriers in the surrounding area and collecting their motors from them. At Yaseen Business Centre in Blackburn, Chaudhri was observed operating in a comparable fashion, emerging from the premises to intercept couriers close by and either driving their vehicles into the facility for loading or transporting the substances to their motors for off-site loading.
Raids and sentencing
In May 2023, Lancashire Police officers swooped on Chaudhri's Blackburn operation and uncovered 217kg of cocaine on the premises, with some still hidden inside massive blocks of Gouda cheese. Every wheel of cheese was discovered to harbour two "bricks" of cocaine, which had been clumsily stashed by carving a cavity into each one. Investigators revealed that Chaudhri had agreed to offload more than 2,000kg of drugs for in excess of £70 million between September 2022 and May 2023. He was handed a 27-year and six-month prison sentence at Preston Crown Court in April 2024.
Following the police raid on Chaudhri's premises, the distribution network abandoned using cheese as a cover, with subsequent consignments concealing drugs inside chocolate spread and frozen fish mince instead. Craig Goulding was connected through phone records to several others involved in both the West Yorkshire and Lancashire hubs, with messages revealing he was paid thousands to dispose of the waste food produced. Evidence demonstrated he held a directing role, shifting money between the hubs.
Eight individuals have already been locked up for their part in the conspiracy, with a further seven sentenced this week. McCullagh, Goulding and Asquith were convicted at trial of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug and sentenced in May this year. McCullagh, 58, of Brighouse, West Yorkshire, and Goulding, 39, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, were each handed 25-year prison sentences. Asquith, 44, of Wakefield, was jailed for ten years; Farooq, 37, of Halifax, was sentenced to 15 years. Ockenden, 36, of Wakefield, was jailed for 13 years and four months and Safdar, 44, of Halifax, was sentenced to eight years and nine months.
Driver John Whittell, 43, of Wakefield, was sentenced to 12 years and nine months, and David Jackson, 48, of Manchester, was sentenced to 14 years and four months. This week Harry Johnson and Darren Johnson, both of Caledine Road, Leicester, were handed prison sentences of 16 years and 15 years respectively; Jordan Miles, 32, of Whinchat Close, Coventry, West Midlands, received 12 years and eight months; and Arran Gowans, 28, of Yarm Road, Darlington, Co Durham, was locked up for five years and 11 months.
On Friday three couriers were imprisoned for their involvement in the conspiracy; Brandon Eley, 31, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, for 10 years; Aaron McNally, 38, of Manchester, for 10 years and nine months; and Antony Etheridge, 70, of no fixed address, for 18 months. Three other defendants, Mark Briggs, 31, of Norham Avenue, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, Sammy Stapleton, 42, of Peel Hall Road, Manchester, and Nathan Reilly, 26, of Oxton Avenue, Wythenshawe, Manchester, are due to be sentenced at a later date.
