Colombian national jailed for role in plot to import over half a tonne of cocaine
40-year-old Didier Tordecilla Reyes was arrested at a hotel in East Yorkshire last year
The final member of a drugs smuggling gang who attempted to import cocaine with a street value of £42 million into the UK on a small boat has been jailed.
National Crime Agency officers arrested 40-year-old Didier Tordecilla Reyes at a hotel in Lelley, East Yorkshire, in May last year.
Colombian national Reyes, of no fixed UK abode, had stayed overnight in the hotel with two other men who conspired with him to smuggle the class A drug: 24-year-old Mark Moran and 25-year-old Daniel Livingstone, both from Argyll and Bute.
NCA investigators found the drugs, which weighed 524 kilos, stashed inside a hire van parked outside.
Reyes acted as a contact with Colombian drug cartels and flew in to the UK especially to participate in the smuggling attempt.
He and Moran had sailed a RHIB (rigid hulled inflatable boat) from the Hessle slipway before returning hours later with the drugs haul and unloading it at a beach near Easington caravan park.
Livingstone was waiting for them and had been seen shining a torch out to sea and talking on his mobile phone before they approached.
NCA officers observed Moran and Reyes unloading a number of bags from the RHIB on to the beach, and the van leaving the scene. The clothes Reyes was wearing when he was arrested were so waterlogged that he had to change into a forensic white suit before being taken away.
The group had been tracked by NCA officers, who observed Moran and another man buying a VW Tourag with a tow bar in Dewsbury, which they drove up to Humber RIBS in Hull where they purchased a RHIB. This RHIB was used in an unsuccessful smuggling attempt.
Livingstone was also seen filling two large jerry cans with fuel on the same day as the drugs were unloaded on to the beach.
The NCA investigation was supported by Humberside Police, who provided maritime and roads policing assistance, and Border Force who provided maritime advice.
NCA Senior Investigating Officer Alan French said: “Reyes was an integral part of this smuggling attempt, acting as a go between with drug cartel bosses in Colombia. Without his input, the cocaine would never have got into Moran and Livingstone’s hands.
“There’s no doubt these drugs would have been sold into communities around the UK, but crucial partnership working between the NCA, Humberside Police and Border Force thwarted the plot and left a huge hole in the pockets of the organised crime groups that would have benefitted.
“We are determined to do all we can to tackle the threat posed by class A drugs and protect the public from the horrendous impact they have on our society.”
Reyes was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years imprisonment at Hull Crown Court today (22 September) after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine in July last year. Livingstone pleaded guilty to the offence in June last year.
A jury at the same court convicted Moran of the same charge on 28 October last year, following an eight-day trial. A fourth man, also from Argyll and Bute, was cleared by the jury.
Moran was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and Livingstone to seven years and nine months imprisonment on 23 December last year.