FREAK STORM SANK BRITAIN'S BIGGEST COCAINE GANG

A FREAK summer storm off the south coast of Ireland sent the Caribbean
trawler the Sea Mist heading for the safety of Cork harbour, and the
foundering of one of the most lucrative drug smuggling operations in British
history.

A routine search of the 40ft boat in September 1996 found 599kg of pure
cocaine with a street value of UKP80 million.

The illicit cargo was bound for a criminal outfit on the mainland
masterminded by the flamboyant gambler and racegoer Brian Brendan Wright.
Its discovery led to the start of a Customs operation that broke the most
successful cocaine smuggling gang to target Britain.

Yesterday, six years later, Hilton John Van Staden, the last gang member to
stand trial, was jailed for 30 years. As a result reporting restrictions
were lifted on what has become the longest Customs trial and second longest
criminal trial in British history.

Fourteen other gang members are already behind bars. An international arrest
warrant is out for Brian Brendan Wright, the brains behind the plot, who
fled before he could be arrested.

Wright, nicknamed "Uncle" or "The Milkman" because he always delivers, is
believed to be responsible for importing cocaine with a street value of more
than UKP300 million between 1996 and 1999. He is suspected of laundering the
proceeds through gambling based on doping and race-fixing. He bought off
former jockeys Barrie Wright and Graham Bradley, paying them for illegally
passing on inside information on horses, courts were told during the trials.

Wright, 56, fled to northern Cyprus when the rest of his outfit were
arrested in February 1999. A senior Customs official yesterday described him
as a menace who the British authorities were keen to bring to justice. "It
was probably the most sophisticated and successful global cocaine
organisation to target the UK. Wright is a menace, continues to be a menace
and we want to catch him," he said.

Phone records found on board the stranded Sea Mist led directly back to
Wright. They allowed Customs and Excise to begin tracking his team as they
travelled between the United States, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, France,
South Africa, the Caribbean and Colombia, where the cocaine originated.

While John Ewart, the captain of the Sea Mist, was sentenced to 17 years,
the other crew members acquitted on a legal technicality were soon filmed
meeting Wright at his luxury flat in Chelsea Harbour once more. His son
Brian Wright Jr, 34, who has been jailed for 16 years, would also meet
people on his behalf.

By 1998 Customs and Excise knew of seven consignments of cocaine, with a
street value of at least UKP300 million, and had the names of the yachts on
which they were brought in. The drugs were switched to rented yachts from
Caribbean registered vessels and smuggled in via Lymington on the Solent,
and other villages on the Hamble. Catching the gang in action, however, was
almost impossible.

In November 1998 the Metropolitan Police received an anonymous tip that
Kevin Hanley, one of Wright's right-hand men in charge of selling the
cocaine to dealers, was on a delivery round. He was arrested in London with
UKP2 million worth of cocaine in the back of his van. The drugs were part of
a major consignment, and Wright ordered the suspension of all operations.

Two months later Wright's senior associates, including the Brazilian
ringleader Ronald Soares, came to Britain and resumed the shipments.

A few weeks later they were rounded up and arrested and a further UKP61
million worth of cocaine seized from a farm in Laleham, Middlesex and a
lock-up in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex.

Wright fled, first to Sotogrande in Spain then to northern Cyprus. He told
The Times that he had bolted for fear of spending years on remand awaiting
trial as his health deteriorated.

Before their arrest Wright's senior henchmen, including his son, Brian
Wright Jr, were recorded discussing their gains. They talked openly about
several stashes of cocaine brought into Britain, Australia and the United
States in 1998 and the vast profits which could be made through such deals.

Wright, whose fortune has been estimated at UKP200 million, was believed to
cream off a tenth of the value of every consignment.

He counted the comedian Jim Davidson and the bookmaker Victor Chandler, who
knew nothing of his activities, among his friends, and lavished money on
everyone he knew.

In September 1998 Wright was arrested as part of a police investigation into
the fixing of horse races. Police suspected he was out to increase his
winnings in the 1980s and 1990s through doping. According to Graham Bradley
in his autobiography The Wayward Lad: "When there is a breath of scandal
within racing there is only one name that comes up: Brian Wright.

"Just as the Krays were meant to be behind every protection racket that
operated in London during the Sixties, his name is the first into the frame
whenever there is the first hint of corruption."

During the trials Barrie Wright (no relation) and Graham Bradley admitted
being paid for passing on inside information on horses. Barrie Wright was
cleared of conspiring to smuggle cocaine on behalf of Brian Wright.

The Jockey Club is set to take action against both former jockeys and reopen
an inquiry into the threat of organised crime to racing. "The revelations of
the activities of the Wright gang underline racing's vulnerability to
corruption by criminals and the potential of betting as a vehicle for money
laundering," Christopher Spence, the Jockey Club's senior steward, said.

Senior Customs officials have described Wright as a hugely successful
underworld figure who they suspect is also involved in several contract
killings. "It has taken time, effort and is expensive, painstaking work to
unravel his operation. If it had not been for that storm, which threw up the
first links to Wright, the investigation might never have happened," a
senior Customs official said yesterday.

With 32 tonnes of cocaine imported into Britain each year and Wright still
on the run, Operation Extend, however, is far from over. Customs and Excise
officers fear that without his arrest he could begin to re-establish his
drugs network all over again.