A Penrith dad has been handed a 10-year prison sentence for his key role in a major cocaine supply plot led by an Albanian crime gang.
Andrew Bell’s pivotal part in a conspiracy with roots in southern England was exposed by police who pounced when a 1kg block of the class A drug was delivered to his Primrose Drive home on January 17.
Carlisle Crown Court heard that the block of import-quality cocaine carried distinctive wild horse branding originating from a South American cartel.
It was transported by 35-year-old courier Eyup Bayram, who had made a 692-mile round trip from Dorset in a Mercedes E220 liveried as a taxi.
Police watched as Bayram carefully positioned his taxi a short distance from the home of Bell, 36, who walked to the vehicle with a bag containing almost £27,000 cash. The pair had been in previous phone contact.
Bell sat in the taxi and collected the 1kg cocaine consignment before the taxi moved to his house nearby.
Bell got out and then went into the address. Turkish national Bayram did not leave immediately, prosecutor Ben Stanley suggesting that Bayram checked payment while Bell examined the product.
Police who searched Bell’s loft found the 43 per cent pure kilo of cocaine, various snap-seal bags, £22,000-plus in cash, digital scales with traces of white powder on them, smaller bags of cocaine and cocaine testing kits.
A knuckleduster was also recovered.
Mr Stanley said: “Mr Bell operates the Penrith (wheel) spoke of what originates in the South West.
“He is buying wholesale amounts from the organised crime group which he then has delivered to his home address in Primrose Drive.”
Evidence showed Bayram made the same journey on seven previous occasions, between August and December last year, collecting cash after delivering what a judge concluded were 1kg or 2kg amounts of cocaine to Bell.
Bell admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, possessing criminal property and illegally possessing the knuckleduster.
Trial jurors convicted Bayram, of Lansdowne Road, Bournemouth, of the cocaine conspiracy offence, being concerned in supplying the drug and criminal property possession.
As part of the wider plot, police nationwide had seized 27.5kg of cocaine, 19kg in cutting agents, £167,000 cash and made a number of arrests, the court also heard.
Defence lawyer Mark Shepherd, for Bell, said he his criminal conduct came against the background of a gambling addiction, along with cocaine and alcohol use.
Recorder Mark Ainsworth noted gang leaders operated within southern England.
“But the reach of that organised crime group was significant and, indeed, covered the entire lengthy virtually of England — up to and including Penrith and the home of Mr Andrew Bell,” he said.
The judge had some sympathy for personal difficulties experienced by both defendants.
“My real sympathy in this case is for those whose lives have been blighted through the commercial supply of cocaine on to the streets of England and in particular, in this case, on to the streets of Cumbria,” said the judge.
“Drugs, such as cocaine, wreck lives. It can be devastating to relationships, to families.”
Bayram was handed an eight-year prison term.
