Bimal Puri, 50, of Otterbourne Gardens, was found guilty of one charge of smuggling along with his conspirator Glenn Clark, 49, of Ramsey Close, Colindale, at Isleworth Crown Court.Two other men, Barry Hearn of Rannock Close, Edgware, and Jose Perdomo, 49, of Moody Road, Peckham, had already pleaded guilty to one charge of smuggling.
The court heard how the four paid Mexican drug contacts to hollow out wooden panels in 20 computer desks and fill them with coke.
The furniture was then flown into Heathrow, arriving on June 29 last year.
The group was discovered when the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) began investigating them.Officers from SOCA watched as the smugglers held a series of meetings.“This was a large and valuable quantity of cocaine, and in my view this was a well-planned enterprise in which each of you played a part.”
Judge Hezlett Colgan
When the furniture was unloaded x-rays showed it contained cocaine with a street value of more than £1million.Investigators allowed the delivery to go ahead, but followed the furniture as it was driven to an industrial estate in Feltham.
Hearn then took the goods to his Edgware lock-up removing 48 packs of coke and storing them in his loft four men were arrested on July 1.Passing sentence Judge Hezlett Colgan said: "This was a large and valuable quantity of cocaine, and in my view this was a well-planned enterprise in which each of you played a part."
Puri, Perdomo and Clark were jailed for 15 years while Hearn was given an eight-year sentence.A fifth man, Kevin Hanley, from Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, is still being hunted by police.
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