The gang, who also imported more than half a tonne of cannabis, was stopped by the Organised Crime Partnership – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service unit – after they intercepted encrypted messaging services EncroChat under Operation Venetic.

Lee McClenaghan, 57, from Chelmsford, and 55-year-old Lea Talbot from Chadwell St Mary, had used EncroChat to discuss their drug operations under the handles ‘catwithninelives’ and ‘legitimateyak’ respectively.

McClenaghan instigated the plot to sail a yacht in the transatlantic crossing, an annual event which runs from St Lucia to Lagos in Portugal, and sent Talbot to meet with Venezuelan drug cartel bosses prior to the contest in 2020.

McClenaghan employed Ian Magee, 68, also from Chelmsford, to source and sail yacht Ocean Magic in the 2019 event in what investigators believe may have been a dummy run. Daniel Braithwaite, 61, from Essex, helped arrange prices and payments for the drugs.

Magee, and another man he employed due his sailing experience, purchased a yacht Sotirius, which they planned to load with the cocaine and enter into the 2020 race.The pair spent two years planning the venture, only to see the race cancelled in May 2020 due to Covid 19.

Cannabis seized by officers. Photo: National Crime Agency

The Court heard that McClenaghan then arranged two separate importations of cannabis to the UK, from Canada and South Africa, totalling 676 kilos with the drug hidden in shipping containers of fresh fruit and vegetables.

In March 2022, whilst searching the inside of a machine lathe, Border Force officers at Tilbury Port found 408 kilos of cannabis, which had come from South Africa.

Cannabis seized by officers. Photo: National Crime Agency

McClenaghan was again the main driver behind this, assisted by Daniel Braithwaite and 61-year-old Paul Tozer, from Epping, Essex, whose textile business was to be the delivery address for the consignment.

They were assisted by 52-year-old Karl Richter, from Swansea, who communicated with a South African contact, and worked with 60-year-old Kane Ward, from Upminster, Essex, who helped organise the planned importation.

In July 2023, Border Force officers at Southampton examined a consignment of tool boxes imported from Vancouver. Within the load were 20 large tower toolboxes containing 268 kilos of cannabis. John Campbell, 69, from London NW6, assisted the operations by creating fraudulent payments and false companies.

McClenaghan, Talbot, Braithwaite, Magee, Campbell and Ward were jailed for 30 years, 23 years, 22 years, 20 years, 10 years and six years and six months. Richter is due to be sentenced on 16 October.

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