Fifteen men who were part of a gang which distributed up to £1.4bn of cocaine smuggled into the UK hidden in cheese, chocolate spread and cod mince have been jailed.
The criminal network, described by West Yorkshire Police as the "largest criminal enterprise" the force had dismantled, was estimated to have moved more than 4.5 tonnes of drugs across the north of England in just 18 months.
Sentencing the men at Leeds Crown Court, His Honour Judge Christopher Batty said those involved were responsible for distributing "astronomical sums" of cocaine.
Det Insp Kevin Daly described organised crime groups as "very ingenious in coming up with different ways to be able to hide the drugs".
The exact amount of drugs the gang distributed - and their value - is unknown, but a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said available intelligence and evidential assessments estimated it to be between four and 14 tonnes, which equated to a street value of between £400m and £1.4bn.
'Sophisticated conspiracy'
The police investigation into the gang was sparked when cocaine and ecstasy worth £2m were seized from a car whose driver was stopped in the East End Park area of Leeds in January 2023.
The discovery led officers to uncover what Batty described as a "sophisticated conspiracy to distribute what were huge quantities of cocaine that had been imported from South America via Europe".
More than 100kg of gouda cheese was transported as commercial freight into Dover and then on to a legitimate distribution hub in Derby between December 2022 and April 2023, police said.
Refrigerated trucks then collected shrink-wrapped pallets of cheese and delivered them to industrial units in Huddersfield, Cleckheaton and Halifax in West Yorkshire and Blackburn in Lancashire.
At those locations, blocks of cocaine hidden within large wheels of the dairy product were unpacked and then re-packaged in cardboard boxes and black bin liners.
A network of couriers from the Midlands, Lancashire and the North East would then collect the drugs for onward distribution.
After two members of the distribution network were arrested in May and July of 2023, officers said they "observed a change in tactics", with pick-ups instead taking place at motorway service stations and consignments of chocolate spread and frozen fish mince used to hide the drugs.
One defendant, Craig Goulding, who was jailed for 25 years in May, was paid "thousands" to dispose of the waste food from the operation, police said.
Many of those sentenced in May and this week were arrested in December 2023 and have been convicted in a series of linked trials.
Reporting restrictions had been put in place by the judge to avoid prejudicing the trials, but have since been lifted.
Daly said tackling "sophisticated" gangs such as this was a constant challenge.
"To a certain extent we take out one and another will try and repopulate," he explained.
"It's something we are continually looking at. We are continually looking to try and tackle serious and organised crime."
To date, all those sentenced for their involvement in the conspiracy have been jailed for a total of 196 years.
Two of those convicted - Sammy Stapleton, 42, of Peel Hall Road, Manchester, and Nathan Reilly, of Oxton Avenue, Manchester - are due to be sentenced next month.
Meanwhile, Mark Briggs, 30, of Norham Avenue South, South Tyneside, will also be sentenced at a later date.
The others received the following sentences:
Craig Asquith, 44, of Gill Sike Grove, Wakefield, 10 years imprisonment
Craig Goulding, 39, of Church Lane Avenue, Wakefield, 25 years imprisonment
Aiden McCullagh, 58, of Mill Grove, Brighouse, 25 years imprisonment
Ikram Sadfar, 44, of Willowfield Road, Halifax, eight years and nine months imprisonment
John Whittell, 43, of Spa Grove, Wakefield, 12 years and nine months imprisonment
Harry Johnson, 26, of Caledine Road, Leicester, 16 years imprisonment
Darren Johnson, 31, of Caledine Road, Leicester, 15 years imprisonment
Jordan Miles, 33, of Winchat Close, Coventry, 12 years and eight months imprisonment
Aaron Gowans, 28, of Chivers Court, Stockton-on-Tees, five years and 11 months imprisonment
David Jackson, 48, of Broadoak Avenue in Manchester, 14 years and four months imprisonment
Umaar Farooq, 37, of Gladstone Road, Halifax, 15 years imprisonment
Lewis Ockenden, 36, of Esther Avenue, Wakefield, 13 years and four months imprisonment
Brandon Eley, 31, of West Street, Tamworth, 10 years imprisonment
Anthony Etheridge, 70, of HMP Fosse Way, 18 months imprisonment
Aaron McNally, 38, of of Ada Street, Manchester, 10 years and nine months imprisonment
A CPS spokesperson said other defendants had also been sentenced over their roles in the wider operation.
Get in touch
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.