Story perspectives

UK Sentences Cocaine Smugglers After £450M Cheese Haul

By Drooid · Oct 31, 2026 · How we work

Read the story

Story summary

Summary

UK courts sentenced seven members of a cocaine-smuggling ring to prison.
The gang hid 4.5 tonnes of cocaine inside wheels of cheese shipped through Dover.
Police valued the cocaine at over £450 million.
Investigators linked the operation to industrial units in Huddersfield, Cleckheaton, Halifax and Blackburn.
Sentences ranged from 10 to 27 years, with McCullagh and Goulding each receiving 25 years.

History

In the early 1980s a Colombian-sourced cocaine boom sparked the U.S. crack epidemic, prompting harsh sentencing laws in 1986. By 1995 British authorities—National Crime Squad, Home Office and customs—launched Operation “Cocaine,” seizing 1.2 tonnes of cocaine (£120 million) at Liverpool docks and imprisoning 15 traffickers. The raid shows how the same freight corridors that fed the 1980s surge remain key targets for organized-crime interdiction.

1 of 2

In the early 1980s a Colombian-sourced cocaine boom sparked the U.S. crack epidemic, prompting harsh sentencing laws in 1986. By 1995 British authorities—National Crime Squad, Home Office and customs—launched Operation “Cocaine,” seizing 1.2 tonnes of cocaine (£120 million) at Liverpool docks and imprisoning 15 traffickers. The raid shows how the same freight corridors that fed the 1980s surge remain key targets for organized-crime interdiction.

1 / 2