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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.
A New Cross trafficker who tried to smuggle into the UK £32 million worth of cocaine disguised inside root vegetables have been jailed for a 15 years, authorities said. Juan David Perea Lopez, 26, and Bashar Fares Al-Safee, 31, of north Kensington, 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 sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, with Al-Safee getting 21 years in prison and Lopez sentenced to 15 years, said the 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.
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.