A jury has concluded that a 10th man was involved in a massive cocaine supply plot which saw up to £53 million-worth of the drug trafficked across the UK.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how the criminal conspiracy was blown apart after detectives discovered cocaine was being repeatedly transported into South Cumbria in 1kg shipments.
Three men were initially rounded up by police. They included 31-year-old Reece Barnes, of Elim Grove, Bowness-on-Windermere, who was found to have kept the cocaine in a lock-up near his home.
Mobile phone data and other evidence revealed the conspiracy’s scope was UK-wide and that cocaine had been sourced from aboard by crooks higher up the criminal ladder before being transported by couriers to a host of towns and cities across the British mainland for street supply.
More than 300kg of cocaine — potentially worth between £35m and £53m — is estimated to have been involved.
“The quantities of drugs in the overall conspiracy in this case are truly massive,” prosecutor Tim Evans told the court.
“The scope of the overall conspiracy is countrywide. It features Blackpool and the Fylde coast, it features Yorkshire, various places in the Midlands, South Wales and various parts of England, Wales and Scotland.”
Nine men aged between 32 and 62 — including Barnes — have admitted conspiring to supply cocaine between March 1 2022, and May 25 last year.
The 10th man, 33-year-old Scott Owen, of Salisbury Way, Tyldesley, near Wigan, denied the charge. But this afternoon, after a trial lasting more than a week he was found guilty, unanimously, by a jury of seven men and five women.
They deliberated for seven-and-a-half hours having listened to what Mr Evans described as damning phone evidence which showed Owen had repeatedly been in direct contact with co-conspirators as arrangements were made to transport cocaine into Cumbria.
That supply was facilitated and organised by Owen and another plotter, said the prosecutor, but was intercepted on February 4 last year by police who made a series of arrests.
Judge Nicholas Barker adjourned the case until March 11 when a two-day sentencing hearing for all men is due to start. In the meantime, Owen remains remanded in custody.
