'THE BIG FELLA' 23-month organised crime trial goes down in British history for one special reason

It has been branded the country's biggest ever intercepted illegal drug smuggling operation culinating in the longest ever running criminal trial the UK has ever heard.

The international organised crime group (OCG) smuggled billions of pounds of drugs into the UK, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Eighteen members of the OCG have now been convicted after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into what it called the United Kingdom’s biggest ever detected drugs conspiracy.

The offenders, led by Paul Green, 59, a man known as "The Big Fella", are thought to have smuggled several billion pounds worth of heroin, cocaine and cannabis to and across the UK.

From south east England to Scotland, crime gangs were fed drugs from the OCG’s importations – which are believed to have contained more than 50 tonnes of drugs -the weight of around 30 family sized cars.

It took two criminal trials to try all of the defendants.

One trial lasted 23 months, a record in England and Wales – the other lasted nine months.

The judge who presided over the trials said the drug smuggling was “on an industrial and hitherto unprecedented scale”.

Today, at Manchester Crown Court, reporting restrictions were lifted upon verdicts in the second trial, and news of the NCA’s operation can be released.

Six seizures of drugs with a total street value of £40m were made from the OCG, which was based in north west England with accomplices in the Netherlands, between the indictment period of August 2015 and September 2018.

But NCA investigators proved there were at least 240 importations by the OCG, which went to great lengths to confuse the authorities and avoid justice. 

Trial judge Paul Lawton said if only half of the importations contained the same quantities of drugs as the six recovered seizures, it would amount to £3billion worth.

The OCG was led by Green, who was jailed for 32 years.

It set up a series of front companies and warehouses in England and the Netherlands to mask offending.

And to avoid detection, the OCG concealed its drugs in consignments of strong-smelling foodstuffs such as onions, garlic and ginger. The crime group bought so many onions – between 40 tonnes and 50 tonnes a week, that it couldn’t get rid of them and often sent them back to the continent to act as another cover load.

“The stench of criminality is overpowering,” prosecuting KC Andrew Thomas told the jury as has he opened the case.

The OCG exercised a high degree of criminal tradecraft to evade the authorities.

Green rented a hotel room near his home in Widnes, Cheshire, so he could use its Wi-Fi without it being traced back to him.

Offenders used encrypted communications, faked documents, changed their names by deed poll and acquired live and defunct - but previously legitimate - businesses to disguise their drugs importations. 

Companies the OCG was dealing with – suppliers and transport firms – would be far less suspicious about doing business with an organisation appearing to have an established trading history and, in some cases, an existing VAT number.

As well as bringing in his own OCG’s drugs for subsequent sale, Green specialised in operating a smuggling route for other UK based crime groups.

The criminal charges against OCG members related to five separate smuggling plots.

Green created a fake paper trail to smuggle £1.1m of amphetamine base oil in bottles of cream bought in Belgium.

But a Border Force dog sniffed out the drugs hidden in a van on 29 March 2016.

Undeterred, the OCG carried on.

The offenders used a front company cloned from a legitimate business in Truro, Cornwall, to try and smuggle 8kgs of cocaine worth nearly £1m into the UK.

Conspirators rented a warehouse in Uithoorn, northern Netherlands, and hid the cocaine in four cardboard boxes packed with ginger for deliveries to be made to warehouses they had rented in Bolton, Wigan and Ormskirk.

The OCG also rented warehouses in Leeds, Preston, Sheffield and Warrington over the course of their offending.

In September 2016 the plot was foiled when an innocent Dutch haulage driver employed to collect and deliver the consignment smelled a rat. He returned to his depot and called the police who found eight 1kg bricks of cocaine.

Each had different markings to denote the various OCGs they were destined for.

A month later Green’s OCG was trying to smuggle 57kg of amphetamine, worth about £1.1m, from the Netherlands to the UK.

But Dutch officers had group members under surveillance and were listening to their phone calls.

Russell Leonard, 47, an OCG foot soldier who spoke fluent Dutch, and a man who cannot be named for legal reasons, had the 57kgs in a van and were responsible for its safe keeping en route to the UK.

But Leonard, of Kirkby, Merseyside, who was usually responsible for packing the group’s drugs in the Netherlands, and his accomplice went out drinking all night and left the van unguarded in Amstelveen, a southern suburb of Amsterdam: 

In a recorded conversation, Green told one of them: “If the van’s gone or been grabbed by the police then there’ll be f***ing murders.”

When the duo returned the following morning from their drinking session, they got in the van and drove off but were immediately stopped by Dutch police. Leonard was jailed for 24 years.

In 2017 the OCG recruited Sohail Qureshi, 64, Khaleed Vazeer, 58, and Ghazanfar Mahmood, 53, to develop a new transport route into the UK. They joined forces with a Dutch criminal group led by Barbara Rijnbout, 53, and Johannes Vesters, 54, who were jailed for 18 years and 20 years respectively after being extradited from the Netherlands.

In 2018, after the NCA and Dutch Police began working together, the vast scale of the OCG’s offending became clearer.

Joint working led to the seizure of 450kg of cocaine and heroin and two tonnes of cannabis across three seizures at the ports of Killingholme and Immingham, both Lincolnshire, and one in the Netherlands.

Green was also convicted of fraud by false representation.

He and accomplice Leslie Kewin, 63, of Runcorn, Cheshire, stole a man’s identity and raised a £262,000 mortgage on the victim’s four-bedroom house in Mount Way, Waverton, near Chester, to pay for a drugs debt.

Instructed by Green, Kewin rented the property and changed his name by deed poll to the same as the landlord.

Kewin then claimed he owned the house and obtained the fraudulent mortgage, provided by a small finance company. The OCG used the landlord’s name to: open several bank accounts; create a company called Blackpool Fruit and Veg; and rent a warehouse in Leeds. 

When Green was arrested officers recovered almost £10,000 in cash from his home. His bank statements showed he and his wife spent more than £26,000 on watches and jewellery in the previous six months.

Between 2016 and 2018 more than £1.5m passed through Green and his partner’s bank accounts. Between 2013 and 2018, Green only submitted two tax returns for cleaning and hairdressing businesses. He declared a profit of £7,405 for 2014-15, and a profit of £17,396 for 2015-16.

Judge Paul Lawton told the offenders: “It was only the dedication, persistence and professionalism of the National Crime Agency working in conjunction with their Dutch counterparts that the scale and complexity of your operation was unmasked.”

He added: “The harm caused beyond the importation is incalculable. You facilitated the distribution of drugs by organised crime groups the length and breadth of the country.  The evidence disclosed drugs being despatched to locations as far apart as London and Scotland.

“What you were actually distributing was addiction, misery, social degradation and in some cases death.  All of that was foreseeable and known by you.  You were also facilitating serious organised crime on a national scale and the violence that forms an inherent part of that culture.”

Rob Jones, NCA Director General of Operations, said: “Without criminals like these, there would be no young teenagers dealing drugs through County Lines. There would be no turf war murders or innocent members of the public killed in the crossfire.

“Paul Green and his accomplices enabled and helped deliver this kind of suffering and misery in communities across the country. They were the crucial link in moving drugs from source countries abroad all the way to UK towns and cities where lives were wrecked by them.

“They thought they could hide behind a web of front companies, false personas and encrypted communications. They were wrong.  

“NCA investigators worked tirelessly to identify this international organised crime group involved in industrial scale drug trafficking.

“Our officers’ meticulous work unmasked them and evidenced the scale of harm they were causing to UK communities.

“The team brought together multiple sources of evidence from overseas partners, seizures at ports and analysis of travel which has dismantled a group operating at the highest levels of organised crime.”

Richard Harrison, NCA Regional Head of Investigations, said: “The offenders smuggled huge quantities of drugs into the UK. They had absolutely no ethics. They stooped incredibly low and left a trail of devastation for entirely innocent people by cloning businesses and stealing identities.

“Tackling the drugs threat is a top priority for the agency and this investigation shows the lengths we will go to in order to protect the public.

“We worked with a wide array of partners at home and abroad, all of whom provided crucial assistance in helping us put these criminals behind bars.”

Minister for Crime and Policing, Dame Diana Johnson said: “This was an extremely complex operation involving a huge number of agencies working together. My thanks go to every single officer who helped to bring these criminals to justice.

“We are determined to bring these organised drug gangs to justice and our streets will be safer with these criminals no longer free to prey on vulnerable people in the name of profit.”

Sara Drysdale, Specialist Prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This case is believed to involve the largest ever drug smuggling operation ever detected in the UK. The scale of the importations was immense and the total value of the drugs was worth up to an estimated £7 billion.

“The defendants convicted in this case include several of the higher-level organisers who financed and organised the drug shipments and who went to extraordinary and complex lengths to disguise their involvement.  

“The series of conspiracies to import drugs into the UK culminated in an alliance between UK and Dutch Organised Crime Gangs to import drugs predominantly on behalf of numerous others. This was a highly organised operation bringing three to four shipments of drugs a week and involving hundreds of kilos of drugs. 

“We would like to thank the comprehensive investigation work of the National Crime Agency. They provided the evidence needed to build a prosecution case which enabled us to seek justice against these 18 convicted defendants. We also extend our thanks to the Dutch investigating authorities for their assistance in the provision of key evidence.

“We will be pursuing confiscation proceedings against defendants convicted in this case to recover money and assets they gained from their criminality.”

THE DEFENDANTS

Paul Green, DoB 26/03/1965, of Widnes, Cheshire.

Role: Ringleader known as "The Big Fella". He recruited and organised members of the OCG and was the contact for other OCGs that wanted to smuggle drugs on his runs. Changed name twice by deed poll. He started life as Simon Swift then became James Russell before a second change to Paul Green. Charged over all five conspiracies.

Convicted of: conspiracy to import amphetamine x 2; conspiracy to import cocaine; conspiracy to import amphetamine; fraud by false representation; conspiracy to import cocaine and or diamorphine x 2; conspiracy to import cannabis or cannabis resin x 2. Sentenced to 32 years in prison.

Steven Martin, DoB 12/12/1971, of Chorley Old Road, Bolton, Lancashire.

Role: The OCG’s finance man, involved in logistics and operated bank accounts opened in the names of various puppet account holders. He hid money and made transactions. Originally known as Steven Walker, changed his name by deed poll and regularly used fake names.

Convicted of: conspiracy to import cocaine; conspiracy to import amphetamine; conspiracy to import cocaine and or diamorphine; conspiracy to import cannabis and or cannabis resin. Sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Muhammad Ovais, DoB 18/01/1978, of Bournlea Avenue, Burnage, Manchester.

Role: A principal organiser. Arranged several front companies for the OCG and was in charge of the UK warehouses the drugs were delivered to. Also responsible for onward distribution of drugs to customers. When arrested, Ovais had £44,980 cash in a Lacoste bag and three cars on his drive: a Range Rover Velar with a private registration; a Mercedes E Class convertible and a brand new Volvo XC60.

Convicted of: conspiracy to import cocaine and or diamorphine x 2; conspiracy to import cannabis and or cannabis resin. Sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Russell Leonard, DoB 25/05/1976, of Grosmont Road, Kirkby, Merseyside.

Role: Foot soldier, spoke fluent Dutch and was sent to work in the Netherlands packing consignments of drugs. Also involved in the distribution of drugs in the UK in the Blackpool Fruit and Veg conspiracy.

Convicted of: conspiracy to import cocaine; conspiracy to import cocaine and or diamorphine; conspiracy to import cannabis and or cannabis resin. Sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Alan Cumming, DoB 29/12/1969, of Litherland Road, Bootle, Liverpool, Merseyside.

Role: Administrative role, helping to organised drugs shipments.

Convicted of: conspiracy to import cocaine; conspiracy to import amphetamine. Sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Leslie Kewin, DoB 07/08/1960, of Picow Farm Road, Runcorn, Cheshire.

Role: Odd job man and gardener who helped arrange front companies and rental premises and opened bank accounts. Changed his name by deed poll to that of his landlord so that he could steal his identity and fraudulently obtained a £214,000 mortgage on his landlord’s house.

Convicted of: fraud by false representation; participating in organised criminal activity. Died earlier this year before sentencing.

Oliver Penter, DoB 01/07/1982, of Gladstone Road, Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Role: Hands-on role in the Netherlands, responsible for hiding drugs in cover loads.

Convicted of: conspiracy to import cocaine and or diamorphine; conspiracy to import cannabis and or cannabis resin. Sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Iftikhar Hussain, DoB 26/08/1973, of Upland Grove, Roundhay, Leeds.

Role: Worked closely with Ovais to run warehouses in Leeds and Sheffield where men were employed to receive the drugs. Also sold on and disposed of cover loads of onions.

Convicted of: participating in organised criminal activity. Sentenced to four years in prison.

Man who cannot be named for legal reasons No 1, from Warrington, Cheshire.

Role: Involved in the onward distribution of drugs from UK warehouses.

Convicted of: conspiracy to import cocaine and or diamorphine; conspiracy to import cannabis and or cannabis resin. Has not been sentenced yet.

Man who cannot be named for legal reasons No 2, of Warrington, Cheshire.

Role: Working with the first man who cannot be named for legal reasons, he ran a UK warehouse for the OCG.

Convicted of: Pleaded guilty to conspiring to import Class B drugs. Has not been sentenced yet.

Johannes Vesters, 08/12/1969, of Utrecht, Netherlands.

Role: A principal Dutch OCG boss.

Convicted of: Conspiracy to import cocaine, heroin and cannabis. Sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Barbara Rijnbout, 07/08/1971, of Utrecht, Netherlands.

Role: A principal Dutch OCG bosses.

Convicted of: Conspiracy to import cocaine, heroin and cannabis. Sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Maxime van Milt, 17/06/1989 of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Role: Was the sole director of a front company.

Convicted of: Pleaded guilty to participating in the criminal activities of an OCG. Sentenced to two years in prison suspended for six months.

Ian Hendricks, 16/06/2000 at the time of the offences was living with his mother Barbara Rijnbout.

Role: Packed drugs covered with vegetables.

Convicted of: Pleaded guilty to participating in the criminal activities of an OCG. Sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years. 

Sohail Qureshi, 08/07/1960, originally from Glasgow, at the time had addresses in Glasgow and central London.

Role: He was the key link between UK and Dutch OCGs and took his orders from Green.

Convicted of: Conspiracy to import cocaine and or heroin. Conspiracy to import cannabis. Has not been sentenced yet.

Ghazanfar Mahmood, 03/12/1970, of Green Lane, Bolton. Born in Pakistan but holds Danish nationality.

Role: Mahmoud, a former taxi driver took his order from Qureshi and travelled to Spain and the Netherlands to develop the operation and he became the director of a front company in the Netherlands.

Convicted of: Being involved in an organised crime group. Has not been sentenced yet.

Khaleed Vazeer, 09/11/1965, Westwood Avenue, Timperley, Greater Manchester.

Role: Helped set up a front company in the UK and helped Rijnbout open personal and business UK bank accounts using forged documents.

Dutch wiretap evidence showed he supported and encouraged Rijnbout to run the Dutch OCG side.

Convicted of: Conspiracy to import cocaine and or heroin. Conspiracy to import cannabis.. Has not been sentenced yet.

Ashley Jones, 25/01/1990 of 21 Herbert Street, St Helens, Merseyside.

Role: Oversaw the packing and concealment of drugs in the Netherlands. Also attended OCG warehouses in Sheffield and Preston and assisted in the onward distribution of drugs across the UK.

Convicted of: Pleaded guilty to conspiring to import Class A drugs. Has not been sentenced yet.

Sentencing of those remaining will take place on 13 December 2024

The NCA would like to thank the following: Dutch National Police, FIOD (Dutch customs), Europol, HMRC, UK Border Force, Lincolnshire Police, West Yorkshire Police, Police Scotland.

Confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act are underway against OCG members with a hearing scheduled to take place in February.