'Mr Big' arrested
A man accused of being at the heart of a £500,000 drug smuggling business has been arrested after an international police operation.
Kevin James Hanley, 40, of Gallows Hill, Abbots Langley, who was described by police as the "Mr Big" of an operation which saw more than 12 kilos of cocaine smuggled into the country from Mexico, was sought by police in this country and Interpol abroad until his arrest in north London.
Hanley, was said to have been "the man at the hub of the plot" and featured in a BBC Crimewatch appeal.
He had not been seen since the arrests of a drug smuggling gang and the seizure of the drugs on July 1 last year when almost 12.5 kilos of cocaine were found hidden in computer desks.
He is suspected of playing a role in the conspiracy.
Four men who organised the smuggling were jailed for a total of 50 years last Thursday, after a four-week trial in Isleworth Crown Court.
Unknown to them, officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) had them under observation for three months before the drugs arrived through Heathrow on June 29 last year.
The computer desks were delivered to freight-handlers Southern Cross in Feltham and collected the following day, when they were taken to a house in Edgware and stored in the loft, the court heard.
During the trial of the four men, Prosecutor Julian Christopher, said: "The evidence concerns observations on the four men and the telephone calls between them over the three months leading up to the importation, and the paperwork found when they were arrested.
"Officers from SOCA followed and watched the movements of these men on different days. The defendants were all too aware of this possibility and took steps to avoid surveillance."
According to counsel, each of the defendents had more than one mobile telephone.
Each had one, always a pre-paid phone without a registered user, which was not used for their normal social and domestic calls and did not contain an address book of normal contacts, but instead was a phone used especially in connection with the enterprise at the heart of this case.
The court heard how the defendents could get rid of these phones easily if anything went wrong and even though they all had mobiles, they were seen on occasion using telephone kiosks.
According to counsel, Kevin Hanley would look around himself constantly as if he was aware of the possibility of being watched.
The packets of the drug were hidden in two of 20 computer desks that arrived at Heathrow Airport.
5:13pm Friday 18th April 2008
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