Cocaine smuggler jailed for 15 years for attempting to smuggle half a tonne into Yorkshire
Mark Moran, 23, was a key player in the drug smuggling operation which was foiled when officers from the National Crime Agency pounced on him and other members of the gang at a pub in East Yorkshire.
Co-accused Daniel Livingstone, 25, was also arrested outside the Stag’s Head Inn at Lelley on May 4, where he’d stayed with Moran and 40-year-old Colombian national Didier Tordecilla Reyes, with 524 kilos of high-purity cocaine in his van.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHull Crown Court heard that none of the gang knew they were being covertly tracked and monitored by the NCA.


The previous day Moran and Reyes had sailed a rigid inflatable boat from the Humber Rescue slipway at Hessle to collect the drugs, which had been shipped from Columbia.
They’d returned in the dead of night to unload the haul 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.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdNCA officers observed Moran and Reyes ditch the boat on the beach after unloading a number of bags into the van.


Earlier in the day Moran was in Norwich where he drove a hire van and the boat up to Grimsby.
There, he met Livingstone and Reyes. The gang drove on to Hessle and Livingstone stopped to fill two large jerry cans with fuel.
Moran, of Glenfyne Terrace, Upper Glenfyne Park, Ardrishaig, was convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine on October 28 following an eight-day trial.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdLivingstone, of Calton Avenue, Campbeltown, who pleaded guilty to the same charge in June, was jailed for seven years.


Reyes, who admitted conspiracy to import the class A drug in July, is due to be sentenced at a later date, while a fourth man was cleared by the jury.
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."
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIn October the Office for National Statistics revealed that drug-poisoning deaths in England and Wales had hit the highest level in 30 years, fuelled by a 30 per cent rise in fatalities involving cocaine.


Cocaine deaths were nearly 10 times higher in 2023 than a decade earlier, claiming more than 1,100 lives. In total, there were 5,448 deaths related to drug poisoning registered in 2023.
The North East recorded the highest rate of drug poisoning deaths by region for the 11th consecutive year, three times higher than London, which had the lowest rate.