Six semi-professional footballers behind an 'industrial scale' £260million cocaine empire

[Nin]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... mpire.html

Six semi-professional footballers behind an 'industrial scale' £260million cocaine empire operating across Britain have been jailed for a total of 104 years.

The criminal network fell like a 'house of cards' after police stopped Luke Skeete, 26, while driving a small panel van which had 8kg of Class A drugs packed in the rear.

A video recovered from a car involved in a deal showed Skeete, from West Drayton in West London, parking up in his white van and passing over a holdall of drugs.

The footage showed Skeete smiling as he put on gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints while being recorded in high definition from the camera on the car's wing.

Officers arrested Skeete and a further 123kg of cocaine and 224kg of ketamine was recovered from storage units he controlled in Acton and Chiswick, West London.

Specialist detectives also discovered a secure messaging app on Skeete's seized mobile phone linking him to five fellow semi-professional footballers as follows:

Chesham United FC's Shaquille Hippolyte-Patrick, 29, of North Kensington;
FK Senica's Jamarl Joseph, 28, of Wembley, North West London;
Enfield Town FC's Adam Pepara, 35, of Solihull, West Midlands;
Harrow Borough FC's Andrew Harewood, 34, of North Acton, West London; and
Margate FC's Melchi Emanuel-Williamson, 29, also of North Acton.

Each had an individual handle to conceal their identity, but these were uncovered by experts - and their chats 'demonstrated and evidenced a sophisticated, professional business model the group were operating to supply cocaine through the UK'.

[DA Mikey]

Don’t flush the toilet man! It’s cool, it’s only Neil!