Gang Smuggled Cocaine Worth £450m Inside Wheels of Cheese

Criminals who imported 4.5 tons of the class-A drug hidden in blocks of gouda are jailed

A drugs gang smuggled £450m worth of cocaine into the UK inside wheels of cheese.

Seven members of the network have been jailed after hiding four and a half tons of the drug in shrink-wrapped pallets of cheese to transport them into Dover as commercial freight.

The drugs were then supplied throughout the North of England, police said.

A total of 18 people have been convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine following two trials, which began last year.

Three of those convicted for their roles in the conspiracy were jailed at Leeds Crown Court on Friday. Four other people were jailed earlier in the week.

An investigation was launched after cocaine and ecstasy worth £2m were seized in Leeds in 2023, prompting West Yorkshire Police to uncover a wider distribution network.

Police found that an organised crime group had imported 123,568kg of cheese into the UK between December 2022 and April 2023. After being transported as commercial freight into Dover, the cheese was sent to a distribution hub in Derby.

Refrigerated trucks collected the shrink-wrapped pallets of cheese and delivered them to industrial units in Huddersfield, Cleckheaton and Halifax in West Yorkshire, and Blackburn, in Lancashire.

Two of the hubs were managed by Aiden McCullagh, 58, and one was run by Saleem Chaudhri. Ikraam Safdar, 44, was shown to have rented a unit at a car wash in South Parade, Halifax, which was also used as part of the operation.

Across these premises, McCullagh, Chaudhri and Craig Asquith, 44, would remove the cocaine hidden in the wheels of cheese and package them in brown cardboard boxes and black bin liners.

Once the drugs were ready for onward supply, a network of couriers from West Yorkshire, Lancashire, the West Midlands and the North East would descend on the areas around these distribution hubs to collect their supplies.

At Whitacre Industrial Park in Huddersfield and Acorn Business Centre in Cleckheaton, Lewis Ockenden, 36, and Umar Farooq, 37, would meet the other couriers nearby and take their vehicles from them.

At Yaseen Business Centre in Blackburn, Chaudhri was seen to operate similarly, driving out of the unit to meet couriers nearby and taking their vehicles into the unit himself to be loaded or taking the drugs to their vehicles to be loaded off site.

In May 2023, officers from Lancashire Police raided Chaudhri’s operation in Blackburn and found 217kg of cocaine inside the unit, some still contained in large blocks of gouda cheese.

Each block of cheese contained two “bricks” of cocaine, which had been concealed by hacking a space.

The investigation into Chaudhri found that he had agreed to sell more than 2,000kg for more than £70m between September 2022 and May 2023.

He was sentenced to 27 years and six months in prison at Preston Crown Court in April 2024.

After the police raid on Chaudhri’s premises, officers said the distribution network stopped using cheese and later used chocolate spread and frozen fish mince to hide the drugs.

Craig Goulding, 39, was linked by phone contact to some of the others involved in the West Yorkshire and Lancashire hubs. Messages showed that he was paid thousands to dispose of the wasted cheese.

Goulding was also shown to have a directing role, moving money between the hubs.

Eight people had already been jailed for their roles in the conspiracy, and a further seven were sentenced this week.

McCullagh, Goulding and Asquith were found guilty of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug and sentenced in May this year. McCullagh, of Brighouse, West Yorkshire, and Goulding, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, each received 25-year prison sentences.

Asquith, of Wakefield, was jailed for 10 years; Farooq, of Halifax, was sentenced to 15 years. Ockenden, of Wakefield, was jailed for 13 years and four months and Safdar, of Halifax, was sentenced to eight years and nine months.

John Whittell, 43, a driver from 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 jailed for 16 years and 15 years respectively; Jordan Miles, 32, of Whinchat Close, Coventry, West Midlands, was jailed for 12 years and eight months; and Arran Gowans, 28, of Yarm Road, Darlington, Co Durham, was jailed for five years and 11 months.

On Friday, three couriers were jailed for their roles 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, will be sentenced at a later date.