A former UPS employee has been jailed for 12 years after helping a drugs kingpin smuggle cocaine through the parcel carrier’s UK network.
Zak Archbold, 30, of Braintree, Essex, was convicted of conspiring to import Class A drugs after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation found he had used his position at UPS’s Stanford-le-Hope depot to facilitate the movement of cocaine concealed in parcels arriving from the Netherlands.
Archbold was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court alongside Steven Bullen, 51, formerly of Hornchurch, Essex, who received a sentence of 16 years and four months for importing, producing and supplying cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamine. The NCA said Bullen’s operation involved drugs with an estimated street value of £109m.
The investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK’s response to the takedown of the EncroChat encrypted communications platform.
According to the NCA, encrypted messages showed Bullen had conspired with a corrupt UPS employee, referred to as “King”, to move cocaine through the company’s network.
Following enquiries with UPS, investigators identified Archbold, who had already been dismissed by the company after an internal investigation.
Although Archbold admitted to UPS that he had been involved in parcel theft, the NCA said EncroChat messages revealed he had instead helped Bullen move approximately 28 parcels, each containing up to 12kg of cocaine, through the Stanford-le-Hope depot.
As a team leader responsible for sorting parcels, Archbold had advance notice of which consignments would be examined by Border Force officers. Investigators said he told Bullen he could swap parcel labels to reduce the likelihood of the cocaine shipments being detected.
The NCA said EncroChat messages indicated Archbold was due to receive £750 for every kilogram of cocaine successfully smuggled.
UPS’s internal investigation into the employee played a key role in helping investigators identify Archbold and link him to the wider criminal conspiracy.
The NCA’s investigation found Bullen had imported around 1.1 tonnes of cocaine into the UK between August 2019 and May 2020. Officers later tracked him to a villa in Marbella, Spain, where he was arrested in April 2025 before being extradited to the UK.
NCA senior investigating officer Steve Black said: “Archbold was driven by greed. He thought that he had got away with smuggling cocaine, but our meticulous officers connected the dots between him and Bullen, and now he’s facing the consequences of his crime.”
Gemma Vincent, from the Crown Prosecution Service, added: “Zak Archbold abused his position while working for a reputable courier company and facilitated the importation of cocaine from Europe into the UK.”
The NCA said it will now seek to confiscate the proceeds of crime from both men.
