Drugs baron in £150m cannabis smuggling plot jailed for 18 years

Skunk cannabis was brought to West Yorkshire hidden in shipments of flowers, but after three loads were seized in Holland the international gang switched their operation to the West Midlands.

Sentencing Dutch national Johannes Elmendorp, 51, at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge Sally Cahill QC told him: “I am quite satisfied you were completely at the centre of these conspiracies.”

She said he organised the transportation and addresses for deliveries and was one of the “influential figures” behind the move to the Birmingham area when the Leeds and Bradford operation became “too hot”.

She added: “I take the view you were absolutely pivotal to what was happening, you were a senior figure and very much in control.”

Paperwork revealed there had been 52 deliveries of flowers in 2008 to four addresses in Yorkshire at Pepper Road, Hunslet, where it was rented in the name of a deceased man from Leeds; at Oak Mill, Morley; the Ironworks at Bowling Back Lane, Bradford; and at Albion Park, Stanningley, Leeds.

Andrew Kershaw, prosecuting, told the judge that based on the average value of the loads seized in Holland which were destined for West Yorkshire, it was estimated the successful deliveries were worth around £73.5m on the streets, with drugs worth a similar amount in the subsequent deliveries to Birmingham and Redditch.

The investigation even took police to Ukraine where in early 2008 Elmendorp tried to obtain a greenhouse complex worth between nine and 11 million euros.

Detective Chief Inspector Michael McDermott of West Yorkshire Police’s Crime Division, said it was a “staggering amount” of drugs believed to have entered the UK but the arrests meant that the gang was no longer in operation.

“The use of covert tactics and information sharing between law enforcement agencies proved to be the key to smashing this international criminal drugs gang.

“This was a complex investigation and the convictions result from the close work between West Yorkshire Police, West Mercia Police and the Dutch and German authorities.”

Elmendorp, of Vandans, Austria, who was extradited from Hungary, was found guilty by a jury on two charges of conspiracy to import and two of conspiracy to supply.

The judge also imposed a Serious Crime Prevention Order banning him from entering the UK for five years following his release from prison and also prohibiting him from importing or exporting goods.

Yunus Valli, representing Elmendorp, maintained he was not at the top of the network and there was no evidence of high living.

Arie Menno van Esch, 30, of Aalburg, who was found guilty of conspiracy to import and conspiracy to supply in the West Midland operation, was jailed for 70 months.

Judge Cahill said he became a trusted employee over about 16 weeks during which it was estimated £35m of cannabis was smuggled in.

Terence Koetsier, 22, of Rotterdam, was given two years in prison after he was found guilty of conspiracy to import and conspiracy to supply in the West Yorkshire operation.

The judge described him as a “foolish young man” who was paid a salary and expenses for his involvement over three weeks during which there were six deliveries of flowers.

After the case Clare Stevens, Crown Advocate with CPS Yorkshire and Humberside’s Complex Casework Unit said: “This sends out a clear message that anyone attempting to run this type of large scale criminal activity in our country will be searched out, arrested and will face prosecution in our courts for their actions.”