Ryan King was stopped by police after they made a £11m discovery
Ryan King, 38 and of Tollerton Road in West Derby, has been convicted of attempting to smuggle class A drugs(Image: National Crime Agency)
A man who tried to smuggle £11m of drugs into the UK was arrested in Liverpool after returning from Alicante. Ryan King, 38, was part of an organised crime group that tried to smuggle the drugs into the UK in March 2022.
Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) began an investigation after the UK Border Force discovered the drugs concealed in an air compressor.
The NCA said the drugs were seized at Killingholme Port near Grimsby in Lincolnshire after arriving from the Hook of Holland in an unmanned trailer.
The haul amounted to 72kg of cocaine and 51kg of heroin worth £11m. King’s DNA was found on the drugs packages and inside the concealment.
Drugs seized as part of a probe shipping heroin and cocaine from Holland to Grimsby(Image: National Crime Agency)
He was arrested at Liverpool John Lennon Airport in December 2022 when he returned from Alicante, and was charged with attempting to smuggle class A drugs.
King, of Tollerton Road in West Derby, was due to go on trial today, Tuesday, at Hull Crown Court but changed his plea to guilty.
NCA operations manager Carl Barrass said: “This was excellent work by our Border Force partners to detect a large amount of class A drugs concealed in a piece of machinery.
Drugs seized as part of a probe shipping heroin and cocaine from Holland to Grimsby in an air compressor(Image: National Crime Agency)
“The loss of those drugs and the loss of King damages the crime group behind the smuggling attempt.
They have lost a huge amount of money which cannot now be ploughed back into further offending, and the drug seizure means they will not be pushed around our communities causing misery.”
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