Skip to content

Trio jailed after £80m of cocaine smuggled in lorry

Aimee Dexter
News imagePress Association A police mugshot of Craig Le-Mare. He has short dark brown hair and is slightly smiling. He is wearing a black T-shirt and is standing in front of a grey wall.Press Association
Craig Le-Mare, 36, was jailed for 20 years at the Old Bailey on Wednesday

A third member of a cocaine smuggling gang has been jailed for 20 years after officers tracked 18 holdalls of the drug, valued at about £80m, in a lorry.

Police were called to a lay-by on the edge of Northampton, in November 2021 after a HGV driver reported that his container had been broken into and items were stolen.

Police said bystanders had seen a group of men unload "large wrapped packages" from a lorry into a grey van. Within two hours officers recovered the van and found 11 holdalls in it.

Craig Le-Mare, 36, of no fixed address, has been sentenced at the Old Bailey for conspiracy to supply cocaine. Two accomplices had already been jailed for the same offence.

Kelly Robertson, 46, of Peregrine Close, Watford, was jailed for 15 years at Snaresbrook Crown Court in November 2024.

Michael Weston, 57, also of no fixed address, was jailed for 12 years and nine months at the same court in May this year.

News imagePress Association Several black bags are wrapped in plastic and are slotted next to each other in a black van.Press Association
Eleven holdalls were found in a van with seven more left in a lorry - containing about 780kg (120 stone) of cocaine in total

The lorry container was supposed to include 29 pallets of steel furniture parts and had been sealed before it left Mexico on 30 September 2021.

Financial records showed gang members arrived in Ipswich on the same day the shipment arrived in Suffolk via the Port of Felixstowe on 12 November 2021.

Police said they "switched cars, changed number plates, split up and even falsely reported the van as stolen as they desperately tried to avoid detection".

News imagePress Association Mugshots side-by-side of two individuals. Kelly Robertson is on the left and has blonde hair in a bun and is wearing a grey T-shirt. On the right is Michael Weston who has short brown hair and a brown and grey beard. He is wearing a light purple shirt and a black coat.Press Association
After the drugs were found, phone data showed Weston (on the right, with Robertson on the left) had texted a friend and complained he was now "skint" for Christmas

A Metropolitan Police investigation uncovered the gang had been working the previous month to hire vehicles and to get people in place for the attempted lorry heist.

Once the van had been located, Northamptonshire Police found that seven holdalls had been left in the back of the lorry, which was parked in a lay-by on Liliput Road, Hardingstone.

Le-Mare left the UK shortly after the drugs were seized and was arrested at Gatwick Airport in January 2025.

Det Insp Dean Grafton, who led the Met's investigation, said it "exposed an intricately planned operation, where the defendants hoped to make millions by selling cocaine across the UK".

Do you have a story suggestion? Contact us below.

Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.

Related internet links