Express & Star

Wolverhampton gang members jailed over £200k drug smuggling plot

Members of a Wolverhampton-based crime gang have been jailed for trying to smuggle cocaine worth £200,000 into the UK from the Caribbean.

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Richard Brown, aged 50, of no fixed abode and Jamaican national Dorbon Davis, 52, were both arrested at Gatwick Airport in November after Brown had flown in from St Lucia.

Brown was held by Border Force after officers discovered 2.5 kilos of cocaine in a hidden suitcase compartment. National Crime Agency investigators arrested Davis as he waited to collect him on the airport concourse.

He initially denied knowing Brown but CCTV footage showed he had dropped him off at Gatwick on the outward leg of his trip.

Evidence from a SIM card recovered when Davis was arrested proved he had been in contact with Richard Brown and a third man, Alistair Brown, 30, who had driven down to Gatwick with Davis and was also at the airport on the day Richard Brown's flight arrived.

Alistair Brown of Joan Street, Wolverhampton, was arrested by the NCA at his home in January.

Richard Brown pleaded guilty to importation charges and was sentenced to five years and three months.

Davis and Alistair Brown were found guilty of being concerned in the importation of cocaine following a trial at Croydon Crown Court.

Davis was given seven years and Alistair Brown two years, suspended for two years, plus 240 unpaid work.

Mark Rutterford of the NCA said evidence had linked all three to a plot to important cocaine worth £200,000.

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