A haulage company was used as cover to import 50kg of high-purity cocaine from Belgium, resulting in three men being jailed for a total of 40 years.
Sunderland-based MGW Haulage used a legitimate European freight operation to conceal the importation of cocaine worth up to £5m, Newcastle Crown Court has heard.
Graham Welsh, 64, who ran the company, was jailed for 16 years after being convicted of conspiring to import and supply cocaine. His associate Gary Jackson, 65, was sentenced to 15 years, while HGV driver Colin Cowie, 64, received nine years.
The court heard that Welsh used his haulage business to provide cover for the operation, with Cowie making a diversion from a legitimate delivery trip to collect the drugs in Belgium.
Cowie travelled from Dover to Calais in an MGW Haulage truck on 10 July 2022. After completing a legitimate collection, he drove to Bruges, where 50kg of cocaine was loaded into a compartment on the HGV.
He subsequently returned to the UK via Folkestone before travelling north. Two days later, he met Jansen McDonald, who was transporting an Audi A1 on a low-loader.
The drugs were transferred from the HGV into the car at a truck stop. Police subsequently seized the cocaine from the vehicle and arrested Cowie after stopping him in South Yorkshire.
McDonald was previously jailed for 12 years for his involvement in the operation.
The cocaine was between 84% and 85% pure and was estimated to have a wholesale value of around £2m, rising to between £4m and £5m at street level.
Prosecutor Dan Cordey described the operation as “professionally organised” and said it was conducted on a commercial scale, with links to criminal networks in both the UK and Belgium.
He told the court that Welsh had day-to-day control of MGW Haulage and had “styled himself as transport manager”.
“A MGW Haulage driver on a legitimate route was used as the cover for this criminal importation of drugs,” Cordey said.
Jackson, who was described as a close friend of Welsh, was involved at an organisational level, while the prosecution argued that Cowie must have known about the illicit cargo when it was loaded in Bruges.
Welsh, of Hylton Road, Sunderland, who has no previous convictions, Jackson, of Belstone Court, Sunderland, who has 35 previous convictions, and Cowie, of Chamberlain Street, Blyth, who has no previous convictions, were found guilty after a trial of conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the importation of 50 kilos of cocaine and conspiracy to supply the same drugs, between June and August 2022.
Defence lawyer Michael O’Brien said Welsh was remorseful, adding: “He was a respected businessman and is a dedicated family man.
“The effect of his sentence will have a significant impact on his wife, children and grandchildren.
“There’s a caring, hard-working, positive side to his character.”
O’Brien added that Welsh, a former soldier who had served in Northern Ireland in the 1980s was not in the best of health and was of previous good character.
Defence lawyer Penny Hall, acting for Jackson, said that the former soldier had not been in any trouble for more than 20 years.
Defending lorry driver Cowie, defence lawyer Jonathan Duffy said Cowie had only worked for Welsh for a few weeks before becoming involved in the smuggling operation, which was a result of financial pressures caused by the pandemic.
“He encountered a costly divorce and found himself desperate for money and foolishly agreed to participate,” Duffy said, adding that Cowie showed significant remorse for his involvement.
The three were sentenced to 16 years, 15 years and nine years respectively.
Detective Chief Inspector Carol Young, of Northumbria Police, described the seizure as one of the largest quantities of Class A drugs ever made by the force.
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