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12/05/2003
Four charged after £50m cocaine swoop
Four British men have today been charged by Customs officers with attempting to import one of the largest ever UK cocaine hauls.
An intelligence-led operation took Customs officers to Winchester services on the M3 on Friday, where they seized 800 kilos of cocaine worth more than £50 million. The drugs were concealed in a consignment of groundnuts.
Two men, Patrick Fitzgerald, 41, of Manor Park, London, and Andrew Barry Hunter, 35, of South Woodford, London, were arrested after officers secured an area at Winchester service station on Friday morning.
Police and Customs subsequently arrested a third man at a roadblock. Stuart Thornhill, 56, of Chaddleworth, Newbury, Berks, was arrested at Chaddleworth, just off the M4.
Then late yesterday afternoon, Welshman Ian Victor Thornhill, 52, brother of Stuart Thornhill, of Pontannedd, Heol Broom Mawdlam, Bridgend, Wales, handed himself into Customs.
All four are being held in Customs custody at Winchester police station and will appear at Basingstoke Magistrates tomorrow morning.
Cocaine is a Class A drug and its importation can result in life imprisonment.
(GMcG)
An intelligence-led operation took Customs officers to Winchester services on the M3 on Friday, where they seized 800 kilos of cocaine worth more than £50 million. The drugs were concealed in a consignment of groundnuts.
Two men, Patrick Fitzgerald, 41, of Manor Park, London, and Andrew Barry Hunter, 35, of South Woodford, London, were arrested after officers secured an area at Winchester service station on Friday morning.
Police and Customs subsequently arrested a third man at a roadblock. Stuart Thornhill, 56, of Chaddleworth, Newbury, Berks, was arrested at Chaddleworth, just off the M4.
Then late yesterday afternoon, Welshman Ian Victor Thornhill, 52, brother of Stuart Thornhill, of Pontannedd, Heol Broom Mawdlam, Bridgend, Wales, handed himself into Customs.
All four are being held in Customs custody at Winchester police station and will appear at Basingstoke Magistrates tomorrow morning.
Cocaine is a Class A drug and its importation can result in life imprisonment.
(GMcG)
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