GANG IN SOUTH AMERICA DRUGS RACKET JAILED

Ten drug traffickers who imported cocaine from South America received jail
terms of between six and 20 years yesterday.

They were members of a gang that initially used motorcycles to carry the
drug from the Continent into Britain but later changed to four wheel-drive
vehicles that were carried by ship to mainland Europe.

Leeds Crown Court was told that special compartments were welded inside the
wheel hubs of the vehicles into which Columbian cocaine with a street value
of pounds 20 million was hidden after being vacuum packed. The racket was
uncovered when members of a 40-strong Customs operation, codenamed
Tablecut, stopped two of the gang in a Land Rover at the Channel Tunnel.
More than 30 kilos of cocaine were found in each wheel.

The man thought to have been one of the gang's masterminds, Connor Mahon,
died when his motorcycle crahsed on the M2 two days after the seizure.
Judge Ian Dobkin said that the main organisers of the trafficking might not
be in the dock, but many of the 10 had played major roles.

The judge said: "More often than not, the importers of drugs do not get
caught at all. Those who are involved in this kind of enterprise play for
very high stakes. It is a feature that when they lose, they lose heavily."
The judge said that many of those in court had been described as mere foot
soldiers by defence counsel. The judge said: "People who are voluntary foot
soldiers put themselves in the line of fire, they get hurt, they get
damaged, they are there to be shot at."

He jailed John Caetano, 48, of Eltham, London, and Brett Moore, 31, of
Basingstoke, for 20 years; Michael Ackroyd, 31, of Batley, west Yorks, and
Martin Phillips, 33, of Basingstoke, for 15 years; Alan Barker, 31, of
Cleckheaton, west Yorks, for 14 years.

Phillip Riach, 25, of Batley, west Yorks, and Daniel O'Neil, 35, from
London, for 12 years; Anthony Hill, 34, of Dewsbury, west Yorks, for 10
years; Gerard Hall, 44, of Walworth, London, for 10 years; and John
Patterson, 60, of Deptford, London, for six years.