A drugs trafficker who collected cocaine from American couriers flying into Manchester Airport has been jailed. Dog breeder Dale Hosker, 50, became the last member of two crime gangs to be sentenced over a plot to flood the UK with vast amounts of cocaine.
He was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into two gangs who collected the class A drugs after they had been flown into Manchester Airport by US couriers.
How the Plot Unfolded
The Americans flew into Manchester from the United States on May 11, 2024, without any luggage and waited until bags containing cocaine arrived from Cancun, Mexico. Eight suitcases arrived at the airport and the couriers followed text message instructions from a US offender called 'Nate' to collect specific suitcases containing hundreds of kilograms of the Class A drug before transferring it to the four men who were waiting at nearby locations.
But one of the couriers left a case behind which Border Force officers opened and discovered 20 one-kilogram blocks of cocaine. The NCA investigation showed that on that day Hosker collected 40 kilos of cocaine and Albanian members of the network collected 100 kilos.
A few weeks later on May 31, 266 kilos of high purity cocaine with a street value of around £24 million was smuggled into Manchester Airport in 12 suitcases. Seven couriers were sent to collect them. But officials were waiting for them. 246 kilos of the drug was seized and only one female courier was successful and was directed to an address in Bury to hand over 20 kilos. The other suitcases were seized, each contained between 22 and 24 blocks of cocaine and a tracking device.
Arrests and Sentences
Hosker, who had been photographed loading the suitcases into his car, was jailed for 15 years and four months at Bolton Crown Court. Last month, his partner Dale Creen, 35, of Mere Fold Way, Worsley, Salford, was jailed for 11 years along with two men from a different organised crime group – Albanians Elton Hallaci, of Adlam Road, and Artur Iseberi, of Aintree Lane, both Liverpool, who were respectively sentenced to 21 years and seven months and 18 years.
Hallaci, Iseberi and Hosker pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to supply. Creen was convicted by a jury of possession of cocaine with intent to supply but acquitted of smuggling cocaine. The seven US citizens who acted as the couriers were last year jailed for collecting the cocaine at Manchester Airport and transferring it to Hallaci, 32, and Iseberi, 27, and Hosker, of Palatine Drive in Bury, and Creen.
How They Were Caught
Couriers collected the suitcases from the carousels, wheeled them outside and caught taxis to a nearby hotel where they passed two to Hosker and five to Hallaci and Iseberi. After the handovers, Hallaci, Iseberi, Hosker and Creen were arrested on June 17, 2025 by NCA officers.
Evidence against them was damning. The offenders were captured on CCTV at Manchester Airport on the days of the importations. And one courier took a photograph of Hosker loading cocaine-filled suitcases into his car following the May 11 handover. Inside Hallaci's home, officers found keys to a Jaguar car parked outside. It had a professionally fitted hidden compartment between the rear seats and the boot used for smuggling drugs.
Officers also discovered a treasure trove of notepads with detailed ledgers of cocaine importations. They featured references to handovers that both Hallaci and Iseberi were involved in on May 11. The notebooks, which were written in Albanian and contained the fingerprints of Hallaci and Iseberi, indicated how the drugs would be divided up with 30 kilos going to Bradford, 35 kilos going to London, 8 kilos to Birmingham.
As part of the investigation, NCA investigators also seized two other Jaguar cars belonging to the Albanian gang which were fitted with hides. On the day the offenders were arrested, Iseberi tried to escape along the roof of his home, and in Creen's bedroom officers found an axe, a knife and a machete.
Comment from the NCA
After the sentencing, Jon Hughes, NCA Branch Commander, said: “The Class A drugs trade is inextricably bound up with extreme violence which can have devastating consequences, we have seen entirely innocent victims caught in the cross-fire of feuding drugs gangs. But offenders like Hosker are driven by greed and don't care about the trail of misery and harm from source countries in South America to the streets of our towns and cities. The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from the threat of Class A drugs.”
