British men tried to smuggle cocaine into Iceland so they could sell it at three times UK price

TWO British men tried to smuggle cocaine into Iceland so they could sell it at three times the UK price, a court heard.

Essex roofer Bradley Pryer, 24, was under investigation when he and associate Cain Adams, 23, were arrested at Stansted Airport on April 16 2022, shortly before they were about to board a flight to Reykjavik.

They cleared customs, but drugs dogs later drew attention to them.

Both subsequently produced small packages of high purity cocaine, which they had concealed in condoms inside themselves.

This had a combined estimated UK street value of £6,300 but would have been worth around three times that in Iceland.

Messages sent by Pryer indicated an intention to send similar quantities of cocaine a week to Iceland via couriers.

Investigations by the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP), a joint National Crime Agency (NCA) and Metropolitan Police unit, established that Pryer supplied multi-kilo quantities of cocaine between March and May 2020 using encrypted messaging platform EncroChat.

He had also supplied heroin, ketamine, MDMA, amphetamine, cannabis and prescription drugs such as oxycodone and diazepam.

His customers were based in various Essex towns, including Chelmsford, Southminster, Grays and Stifford, but also further afield in south London, and Portsmouth.

EncroChat data showed that the total value of the drugs he supplied came to approximately £2.7 million.

Under the handle ‘Maidenbonsai’ Pryer was in frequent contact with Robert Smith, another Essex-based criminal who is facing sentence after pleading guilty to drugs supply offences.

The OCP’s investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK law enforcement response to the July 2020 takedown of the EncroChat encrypted communication service by French and Dutch law enforcement.

Evidence uncovered also showed that Pryer had been dealing in class A-C drugs since 2019, and continued to do so using other methods after EncroChat was taken down.

The court heard Pryer was in contact with other drug suppliers via EncroChat who used the handles Wish I Was Elvis and Absent Kangaroo.

Pryer and Adams were charged with attempting to export cocaine, and Pryer also to two counts of supplying class A drugs (cocaine and MDMA) and three counts of supplying class B drugs (cannabis, ketamine and amphetamine).

Pryer was sentenced to 12 years in jail and will be placed under a serious crime prevention order upon his release.

Adams was jailed for two years, but it was suspended for two years, due to his immaturity at the time of the offending.

Andrew Tickner, from the OCP, said: “Bradley Pryer organised the sale of considerable amounts of class A drugs, and had substantial criminal connections. “He and Cain Adams were even prepared to risk their own lives by attempting to smuggle cocaine out of the UK in the hope of generating greater profit in Iceland.

“We will continue to do all we can to break the organised crime groups supplying class A drugs, which is linked to violence and intimidation throughout the UK.”