Yorkshire aircraft drug smugglers' middleman must hand over £123,000

Jamie Williams from Amery Gardens in Romford was arrested in Pimlico, London in January last year and was found to be in possession of more than £40,000 and a kilo of cocaine.

When officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Metropolitan Police organised crime partnership searched a flat linked to him in Upminster, they found an additional large stash of cash, a gun, ammunition and another five kilos of cocaine.

Investigators said they identified the 39-year-old as the middleman in a criminal group which flew drugs worth millions to the UK via a rural airfield in North Yorkshire to evade border controls.

The NCA said Williams’ role saw him collect drugs in the Netherlands, drive them to Germany and stow them on a plane flown by Yorkshire-based pilot Andrew Wright.

He would then drive back to the UK and pick up the drugs at the other end, delivering them to Mark Dowling, a dealer in Essex.

A ledger found by NCA officers at Dowling’s home listed payments to Williams and Wright.

In February Williams was sentenced to 23 years in prison after admitting supplying Class A drugs and possessing a firearm.

On September 9 a judge at the Old Bailey ordered him to pay £123,225 under the Proceeds of Crime Act - an amount which financial investigators had identified he made from his criminal behaviour.

Williams has three months to pay or faces an extra two years on his sentence.

Spencer Barnett from the NCA and Met Police organised crime partnership said: “Jamie Williams was a serial drug smuggler who our financial investigation showed made hundreds of thousands of pounds from his crimes.

“The main driver behind his criminality was profit, so we have ensured that not only will he spend a long time behind bars but when he comes out he will not be able to benefit financially from his wrongdoing.”