Drugs gang busted with almost £1m of cocaine after West Midlands investigation
A drug gang will spend more than a decade in prison each after a sting led by a West Midlands crime unit.
The international drug gang were found with nearly £1 million worth of cocaine, after an investigation by a West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) into drugs trading across the UK, eastern Europe and America.
Following a large operation, a BMW was stopped by colleagues from Humberside Police in Grimsby last October and the stash, along with nearly £200,000 worth of MDMA and cannabis, was found hidden inside two holdalls alongside the cocaine.
Two members of the gang, Ilja Palionnijs and Egons Semjonovs, were already under police surveillance and CCTV showed them putting the drug-filled bags into the car outside a hotel where they were staying in the town.
The BMW driver Igor Gridin and passenger Aleksej Sagamogas were then stopped shortly afterwards and all four men, who came from Latvia, were arrested and subsequently charged with possession with intent to supply drugs.
Officers found a rucksack in the vehicle with packaging material and receipts which showed items weighing a number of kilos had been transported to other parts of the world.
This included two parcels intercepted in America which contained drugs.
Text messages from ring leader Palionnijs' phone showed he was directing the trade of drugs across continents.
He and Semjonovs had flown from Riga to London and then at some stage collected the drugs.
They had travelled to Grimsby separately to Gridin and Sagamogas who then drove from London to meet them the next day for the exchange.
CCTV evidence secured following the arrests showed Gridin and Sagamogas had previously been involved in the distribution of drug packages.
The four men, all of no fixed abode, were jailed for almost 50 years combined for possession with intent to supply Class A and B drugs at Great Grimsby Crown Court on Wednesday, September 8.
The 31-year-old Palionnijs was jailed for 14 years and four months, 29-year-old Semjonovs for 10 years and six months, 36-year-old Gridin for 12 years and three months and 31-year-old Sagamogas for 10 years and six months.
It was the culmination of a combined sting led by West Midlands ROCU with support from the National Crime Agency, Europol, the US Department of Homeland Security and the Latvian Organised Crime Division.
Detective Inspector Dave Hollies, from West Midlands ROCU, said: "This was a significant drugs ring and the global pandemic was no deterrent in their carefully-laid plans to import and export across continents.
"It was due to the combined efforts of police forces, and other law enforcement agencies across the world, we were able to pinpoint and bring this network down.
"We've not only taken a haul of drugs out of circulation but stopped this gang from trading. Drugs can not only cost lives, but lead to further crime, and there will be no let-up in our work to tackle those involved in the illegal supply of them."
