Crime group in 'fish conspiracy' sentenced over plan to import Class A drugs
Four men have been given custodial sentences over cocaine and ketamine scheme
Enjoy your favourite LBC shows with ad-free Catch Up, weekly competition entries and an exclusive newsletter
Four drug smugglers involved in an operation to use frozen fish deliveries to import drugs into the UK have been sentenced to lengthy jail sentences.
Listen to this article
A long running Metropolitan Police operation concluded at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday after four men ranging in age from 52 to 63 were found to have used encrypted networks to organise Class A and B drug shipments and distribution.
While the men were found guilty for multiple crimes, police honed in on the "fish conspiracy," a plan to import approximately 600kg of cocaine hidden within frozen fish shipments from South America.
The group was planning to send the shipment, worth £20 million, to Unwin’s legitimate fish business at Billingsgate Market.
"This investigation exposed an organised crime group operating on an industrial scale, attempting to hide their criminal activity where people were going about their daily business, with links stretching from South America and mainland Europe to the streets of the UK,” Detective Chief Inspector Dean Grafton from Met's Specialist Crime said.
Read more: Why does Scotland have so many drug related deaths?
The central figure of the operation is Samuel Tokeley, 57, of Alicante, Spain, who will now be spending 22 years behind bars.
He will be joined in prison by co-conspirators Scott Richards, 51, of Wickford, Scott Unwin, 52, of Dagenham, and Nicholas Shilling, 63, of Dubai, who are set to serve custodial sentences of 14, 13, and 22 years respectively.
The men used a platform called EncroChat to discuss the movement of cocaine, ketamine, large sums of cash and cryptocurrency, as well as shipping documentation, logistics and contacts in Ecuador responsible for sourcing the cocaine. The shipment never ended up happening.
Police and the National Crime Agency uncovered their fishy communication in 2020, and spent years using surveillance tools and mobile phone evidence to compile a case against the four men.
Messages recovered from encrypted devices revealed discussions around the movement of cocaine, ketamine, large sums of cash and cryptocurrency, as well as plans to exploit legitimate businesses and transport routes to hide their criminal activity.
Beyond the “Fish Conspiracy” police also uncovered separate plans to import “industrial quantities of ketamine”, with messages revealing plans for hundreds of kilograms of ketamine to be sourced, processed on the continent and imported into the UK for wholesale distribution.
“The defendants believed that encrypted communication platforms would protect them as they discussed vast quantities of drugs, laundering criminal profits and exploiting legitimate businesses to facilitate their offending,” said Detective Chief Inspector Grafton.
“Through meticulous analysis of EncroChat data and close collaboration with the National Crime Agency and our international law enforcement partners, we were able to identify those responsible and gather overwhelming evidence against them, to ensure they were put behind bars.
“These sentences reflect the scale and sophistication of this criminality and demonstrate our relentless determination to pursue organised crime groups wherever they operate.”
The men were arrested in 2023. Unwin and Richards were sentenced for conspiracy to acquire criminal property, Richards and Tokeley were also sentenced for the import and supply of Class B drugs. And, Tokeley was sentenced for conspiracy to be concerned in criminal property.
Tokeley pleaded guilty and the other three men were found guilty by a jury. There was also one co-defendant in the case, Nicky Bowers, who was sentenced to 16 years in January after being convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, conspiracy to import Class B drugs and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.