Three men involved in a conspiracy to bring huge quantities of cocaine to Norwich have been jailed for more than 22 years.
Matthew Carley, 54, and Daniel London, 33, both from Sprowston, bought and sold multiple kilos of drugs from criminal underworld contacts.
Christoffel Van Rossum, 48, acted as a motorbike courier bringing two kilos of drugs from Canvey Island in Essex to a secret meeting with London in woods on the edge of the city.
The hand-over of a backpack near Horsford in March 2020 was observed by a team of covert police officers who had London under surveillance.
Norwich Crown Court was told London was then followed to a property on Shrublands in Horsford before returning and handing a different bag containing £56,885 in cash to the waiting motorcyclist.
Van Rossum, from Witham, Essex, was arrested heading back south on the A11 with £73,000 in his rucksack.
The court was told investigations had uncovered deposits totalling £23,000 into his bank account with sums paid in following trips to other areas of the country including Liverpool, Birmingham and Stoke.
All three men appeared via video link from HMP Norwich to be sentenced after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Judge Alice Robinson said they had “expected to make significant financial gain” while the court was told “their lifestyles far outstripped their declared incomes”.
Carley, of Breck Road, was sentenced to seven years and six months after the court was told he had been involved in supplying three kilos of cocaine.
When he was at his home address in December 2019 police seized £24,000 including £4,000 in a safe in his bedroom together with a large number of mobile phones.
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London, of Egyptian Goose Road, who saw more than seven kilos of cocaine pass through his hands was jailed for six years and nine months.
Van Rossum, who was found guilty of conspiracy following a trial earlier this year, was sentenced to eight years having also admitted possession of criminal property.
John Evison, prosecuting, said the conspiracy had operated between 2019 and 2020.
In June 2019 a vehicle had been stopped by police in King's Lynn with a kilo of cocaine found under the driver's seat.
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A seized mobile phone contained an exchange of messages from London discussing the supply of cocaine.
There was also a video of a large block of white powder being cut up. A fingerprint from the hand seen in the video matched London.
Carley was using the encrypted platform EncroChat to arrange the purchase, delivery and distribution of commercial amounts of cocaine, the court was told.
He also organised drug debts and monies owed to be paid to him - supplying bank account details and making bank transfers - for the large amounts of cocaine he sold.
The court was told he also discussed with others who he brought drugs from how to collect a debt said to be owed by London, including suggestions he could be kidnapped and robbed.
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Huda Musa, defence counsel for Carley, said the former fitness instructor had got into financial difficulties after being involved in a head-on road crash.
She said he "didn’t seek to minimise the seriousness or excuse his actions" but that he had been on a "downhill slope" that had seen him turn to drugs due to physical pain.
John Morgans, mitigating for London, said he was "extremely vulnerable" due to autism, learning difficulties and other impairments.
His involvement had come about due to his "naivety and exploitation", he added.
Father-of-two Van Rossum had initially told police cash deposits in this bank account had been proceeds of inheritance and selling his mother’s home.
Ioana Nedelcu, mitigating, said he had a lesser role that saw him deliver drugs under the directions of others and that he had not paid significant sums.
"There isn’t anyone lower than him in the conspiracy," she added.
Det Sergeant Eddie Hammond, from the Norfolk and Suffolk Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “All three individuals were responsible and had key roles which enabled the supply of commercial quantities of cocaine to be distributed across Norfolk.
“Their sentences reflect the hugely detrimental impact this type of offending has on our local communities."
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