Pilot nicknamed 'Biggles' and fellow drug gang members jailed for multi-million pound cocaine importation

Plot: a Cessna plane used by Andrew Wright to smuggle £33.5 million worth of cocaine into Britain from Germany
Hannah Al-Othman9 February 2016
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Three members of a drug-smuggling crime group who used literary-inspired code-names have been jailed for 66 years after they flew millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the UK.

A 52-year-old pilot nicknamed Biggles was one of the trio, and was sentenced to 19 years for smuggling £33.5 million worth of the drug into Britain, while the plot's Essex-based masterminds received sentences of more than 20 years each.

Licensed pilot Andrew Wright, from North Yorkshire, who took his nickname from the fictional aviator and adventurer, imported 268 kilos of the Class A drug in eight round trips from Breighton Airfield in Selby, North Yorkshire, over three months in the autumn of 2014.

The court also heard the gang used several literary references, as well the famed boyhood hero "Biggles" by W. E. Johns. Other names bandied around included Ginger - his companion - and Skippy.

Big fish: Mark Dowling, 43, was jailed at the Old Bailey for 24 years

Wright's address of Toad Hall is a nod to another children's classic, the Toad of Toad Hall play by AA Milne, the first of several dramatisations of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows.

Judge Nicholas Cooke QC told the trio the amount they smuggled was "off the scale" and of "exceptional seriousness ."

"Big fish" Mark Dowling, 43, from Brentwood in Essex, was handed 24 years in jail and his right hand man Jamie Williams, 38, from Upminster, received 23 years.

The drug smuggling ring was smashed on November 17, 2014 after Wright touched down in Selby with his latest consignment.

Biggles: Pilot Wright was part of a plot to smuggle £33.5 million worth of cocaine into Britain from Germany in his light aircraft

Wright, who owned two Cessna planes, used his aerial photography business Skyviews R Us Ltd as a cover for his illegal activities.

Williams would travel to mainland Europe to get the drugs from Holland and then drive to Kassell airport in Hesse, Germany, to load them onto the plane. He would return to the UK overland.

Once back in Britain, Williams, 38, would travel to Selby to collect the drugs from Wright and deliver them to the head of the operation, Dowling, in Essex.

However, they were stopped in their tracks when a border control officer searched Wright's Porsche Cayenne 4x4 and discovered four bricks of cocaine in the boot with a further 30 blocks stashed in bags in the tail section of his plane.

Runner: Jamie Williams, 38, who has been jailed at the Old Bailey for 23 years

In all, the cocaine had a total street value of £4.25 million.

National Crime Agency investigators uncovered evidence that Wright had been assisted by Williams, 38, who was also arrested.

Dowling was detained some months later in Hutton, Essex, when he made a handover of 19 kilos of cannabis to drug dealer David Rowe, 57, from Hoddesdon, Herts, in June 2015.

At Dowling’s Essex home officers found a further 12.5 kilos of cocaine worth an estimated £1.8 million, 23.5 kilos of cannabis worth £155,000, and a drugs ledger showing that he had been responsible for arranging cocaine shipments totalling more than a quarter of a tonne from the Netherlands, worth a potential £34 million once cut and adulterated to street-level purity, and selling them on to distributors in the UK.

Seized: some of the 268 kilos of cocaine which was smuggled into Britain from Germany in a light aircraft

It also listed payments made to Williams and Wright for their involvement.

Mick Maloney, head of the NCA’s north east border investigation team, said: “This crime group ran an organised operation, utilising the piloting skills of Andrew Wright to import large amounts of cocaine.

“Wright’s previous trips to and from Germany point to him being a professional courier, trusted by his fellow criminals with transporting their drugs.

“We were able to prove that Dowling was head of the organised crime group, responsible for a series of shipments. Williams worked alongside him and would have played a key role in getting these drugs onto the streets.

Haul: the boot of a Porsche Cayenne 4x4 which was used to smuggle 268 kilos of cocaine over three months in the autumn of 2014

“With valuable help from our colleagues in the Metropolitan Police, North Yorkshire Police, Border Force and the authorities in Germany we have dismantled a significant criminal enterprise.”

Two other men were also given prison sentences for their links to the crime group.

Vygantas Gaidamavicuius, 40, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 18 months for money laundering offences in November 2015 following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Vincent Vassallo, 61, from Tower Hamlets, admitted money laundering charges and was sentenced to nine months in December 2015.

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