Lelley cocaine smugglers: Gang convicted of importing over half a tonne of class A drug

HAUL: The cocaine seized by National Crime Agency officers

By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor

Two drugs smugglers who attempted to import cocaine with a street value of £42 million into the UK on a small boat have been jailed.

National Crime Agency officers arrested Daniel Livingstone, 25, on the morning of May 4 this year with 524 kilos of cocaine in his van outside a hotel in Lelley, East Yorkshire.

He had stayed the night in the hotel with two other men who conspired with him to smuggle the class A drug; Mark Moran, 23, and 40-year-old Colombian national Didier Tordecilla Reyes.

MARK MORAN: 15 years

Moran and Reyes had sailed a RHIB (rigid hulled inflatable boat) from a slipway in Hessle 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 ditch the RHIB on the beach after unloading a number of bags into the van.

DANIEL LIVINGSTONE: Seven years and nine months

Earlier in the day Moran, of Ardrishaig, Argyll and Bute, was in Norwich where he drove a hire van and the RHIB up to Grimsby.

There, he met Livingstone, from Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, and Reyes. The offenders drove on to Hessle and Livingstone stopped to fill two large jerry cans with fuel.

The NCA investigation was supported by Humberside Police, who provided maritime and roads policing assistance, and Border Force who provided maritime advice.

ABANDONED: The boat ditched at Easington

NCA Senior Investigating Officer Alan French said: “There's no doubt these drugs would have been sold into communities around the UK, but working with our partners including Humberside Police and Border Force, we have disrupted this crime group’s offending and made a huge dent in any profits they were due to make.

“We are determined to do all we can to tackle the class A drugs threat activity, and protect the public from the horrific damage it causes our society.”

A jury at Hull Crown Court convicted Moran of conspiracy to import cocaine on October 28 following an eight-day trial. 

AWAITING SENTENCE: Didier Tordecilla Reyes

Livingstone and Tordecilla Reyes pleaded guilty to the same offence on June 5 and July 22 respectively. A fourth man, also from Argyll and Bute, was cleared by the jury.

At the same court today (23 December), Moran was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and Livingstone to seven years and nine months. Reyes is due to be sentenced at a later date.