Europe News Desk!!! An Indian-origin man and four others have been convicted of conspiring to supply drugs worth millions of pounds from the Netherlands to the UK and Ireland following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Joshpal Singh Kothiria, 33, who was recruited as a driver to supply drugs to customers in Ireland, pleaded guilty at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday after a two-week trial. Anthony Terry, 49, assisted and supervised the seizure of cocaine worth £1.6 million at Belfast port on 22 February 2021. The drugs were being transported inside a van in fuel tanks from the Netherlands to England and then by ferry to Northern Ireland.
According to a statement issued by the NCA, Terry, who recruited Kothiria, sent him to East London to collect 10 kilos of cannabis and a vacuum packing machine. Kothiria brought these back to the West Midlands, where the cannabis was packaged before being taken to County Leitrim in Ireland. Terry and his organized crime group associates were using the encrypted messaging service EncroChat and the NCA identified other opportunities in 2020 when they smuggled drugs and cash for other organized crime groups. Caught on Encrochat, the last drug run took place between May 26 and June 3, 2020, where Terry discussed cannabis delivery.
Cothiria was sent from Leicestershire to pick it up and take it to Ireland. He was arrested in March 2021, and after a trial in November 2022, Terry was jailed for 18 years. NCA branch commander Mick Pope said it was a sophisticated operation to smuggle drugs into the UK and Ireland to make more profit. In a statement, Pope said Terry was the ringleader of the group, which provided services to criminals who needed to obtain drugs or transfer money. Terry was charged with additional drug trafficking offenses in April 2022 related to messages found on his EncroChat device and pleaded guilty in April of this year. Kothiriya along with other gang members will be sentenced later. Two other gang members who were convicted along with Kothiria and Terry are Michael Collis, 62, of Wolverhampton, and Mohammed Umar Khan, 38, of Birmingham.
–IANS
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World News Desk!!!