Two men sentenced after importing £29 million worth of Class A drugs
The men were jailed following a trial that lasted over two months
Last updated 16th Dec 2023
Two men have been sentenced to a total of over 36 years in prison after they imported over £29 million worth of Class A drugs.
The pair were sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday (December 15th), following a trial that lasted over two months.
Varun Bhardwaj, 39, from Hounslow and Anand Tripathi, 61, from Middlesex were handed two separate sentences for their respective actions in the plot, which saw the illicit substances hidden amongst foodstuffs.
Bhardwaj was given a sentence for 19 years for his involvement in the plot, whilst Tripathi received 15 years for his lesser involvement in the operation.
As well as this, Varun was given a separate sentence for two years for the possession of one kilogram of cannabis, with an estimated street value of £10,000. This sentence will run alongside his other sentence.
The sentencing comes at the end of an operation by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU), which first began in April 2022, when a farmer in the Somerset town of Bridgwater called 999 shocked to discover he had found packages in a shipping container of animal feed he had ordered.
SWROCU officers conducted an initial search of the container, which had been imported to London's Gateway port from Colombia, and discovered a total of 189 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value of more than £15 million.
Through their investigations, it was revealed that a customs clearing agent, named Tatab Ltd was integral to the shipping container making it through border checks.
It was later revealed that Varun and Anand were intrinsically linked to the company, with Anand taking on the role of the company director and the business' secretary.
Varun was also identified as the company's chief operations officer - who reported to Tripathi, but later tried to distance himself from the business after the imports went through.
The two men went on to hide their involvement in the illegal imports as much as possible, creating fake companies and using aliases throughout to try and cover their tracks.
Things came to an end for the pair when SWROCU officers, working with Avon and Somerset Police, arrested the two men in November 2022.
Whilst the men were being detained, another shipping container linked to the pair was held in the port of Felixstowe, being held by UK Border Police. An investigation by the force found a further 49 kilograms of cocaine - worth an additional £4 million - mixed in with oranges being imported from South Africa.
Further enquiries by SWROCU and the Metropolitan Police later linked the two men to two other shipments in September of 2021 and January of 2022, where cocaine and cannabis were hidden amongst sweet potatoes.
In addition to the drugs, the pair also imported three separate shipments of cigarettes, bringing a total of 18,680,000 cigarettes illegally into the UK, with an estimated street value of £9.7 million.
DCI Paul Fisher, of SWROCU, said: “The amount seized over a 13-month period goes to show the significant involvement these individuals had in bringing commercial amounts of drugs and cigarettes into the UK.
"By working closely and collaboratively with our partner agencies this organised crime network has been dismantled and vast quantities of drugs destined for our streets have been eradicated," he continued.
“These are two very serious criminals who I’m glad to see have been given substantial sentences to reflect the magnitude of their offending.”