A London druglord who smuggled millions of pounds worth of drugs into the UK through the post has been jailed for 15 years
Nigerian national Patrick Udensi, 34, from Enfield, was arrested in
January after Border Force staff at the Heathrow Worldwide Distribution
Centre found cocaine in a package that had been sent to an address in
north London.
The parcel, which had come from St Maarten in the Caribbean, led National Crime Agency officers to uncover a sophisticated smuggling operation, headed up by Udensi.
He was the kingpin in a network of criminals who had been involved in
at least 77 different parcel deliveries of cocaine and cannabis - with a
potential street value of about £1.8million - to 14 different addresses
across north London.
Telephone and email records showed Udensi had used Skype, Yahoo
Messenger, iMessage and WhatsApp to communicate with drug distributors
in Africa, Asia and South America, advising them of names and addresses
to send the parcels to.
He was found guilty on Tuesday of conspiring to import class A and class B drugs following a trial at Isleworth Crown Court, and the following day he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
A second man, John Arinze Nwosu, 42, from Edgbaston, Birmingham, a
key organiser for the network, absconded from bail prior to trial, but
was convicted in his absence and sentenced to 5-and-a-half years.
Ian Truby, senior investigating officer for the NCA’s Heathrow border
investigation team, said: “This organised crime group used a ‘small but
often’ method, smuggling packages of class A and B drugs which weighed
anywhere between a few grammes and several kilos.
“Our investigation found evidence of 77 such importations, but in reality there were probably far more stretching back years.
“As we started intercepting packages and they failed to arrive at
their destinations Udensi became increasingly agitated. By the time we
arrested him he must have begun to suspect the game was up.
“Udensi was the ringleader, but Nwosu played an important role,
organising a number of importations, and we are determined he should
serve his sentence.
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