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A former Mayfair pawn broker and his accomplice have been jailed for their roles in a £32m cocaine smuggling operation.
Bashar Fares Al-Safee, 31, and Juan David Perea Lopez, 26, even used the charade of pretending to work for a Saudi Sheikh as part of their plan.
Al-Safee, from North Kensington, London, who once ran a pawn brokers in Mayfair, arranged with Lopez, also from London, to smuggle 400kg of the class A drug into the UK hidden in a consignment of yams from Costa Rica.
Officers from the UK s National Crime Agency (NCA) discovered the container at a port in Essex prior to it being delivered to an industrial estate in North-West London.
In the dock: New Cross man guilty of attempting to smuggle £32M of cocaine hidden inside yams from Costa Rica
Katherine Johnston (27 February, 2021) Lopez and Al-Safee sought to profit from a trade that fuels violence and exploitation throughout the UK and all along the international supply chain
The shipment intercepted by Border Force officials and the National Crime Agency
A man from New Cross was behind a £32 million cocaine smuggling operation where drugs were hidden inside a yam shipment from Costa Rica.
Juan David Perea Lopez, 26 of New Cross, 31-year-old and Bashar Fares Al-Safee, from North Kensington, now face a combined 36 years behind bars after the National Crime Agency and Border Force investigation.
London duo smuggled £32m worth of cocaine into Essex thurrockgazette.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thurrockgazette.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Two traffickers who tried to smuggle into the UK £32 million worth of cocaine disguised inside root vegetables have been jailed for a combined 36 years, authorities said. Juan David Perea Lopez, 26, and Bashar Fares Al-Safee, 31, arranged the importation of 400kg of the class A drug – which was concealed inside a shipment of yams from Costa Rica in 2016, said the National Crime Agency(NCA). They were convicted on Thursday following a seven-week trial after being charged with conspiracy to import and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, said the agency. The container arrived from Costa Rica to the London Gateway Port in Essex in June 2016, and was due to be delivered to an industrial estate in north-west London, it added.