Drug smuggler jailed after hiding £2m of liquid cocaine in oil filter units

Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) broke up a “sophisticated and organised” international conspiracy to import millions of pounds of cocaine onto Britain`s streets, a court heard.

They thwarted a man at the “heart” of the attempted drug-smuggling operation – despite admitting they had never “encountered” his unusual methods before.

Prosecutor Peter Clement said Errol Watson`s “novel way” – shipping cocaine into the UK by dyeing it pink and disguised as oil – fooled X-ray scanners at Gatwick Airport.

Watson, 54, from Wanstead in east London, attempted to smuggle the pressurised cylinders labelled as oil filters through customs at the airport.

The Old Bailey heard nothing suspicious showed up on the scanners when the canisters were X-rayed.

“This was a sophisticated effort at smuggling. It foiled the X-ray and was a method that has not hitherto been encountered by the National Crime Agency or customs officials”, added Mr Clement.

But when officers drilled into the cylinders that had been shipped from Barbados, pink liquid sprayed out which tested positive for cocaine.

NCA investigators quickly took the cylinders to a specialist laboratory and removed all the liquid which amounted to 26 kilograms of cocaine of between 51 to 59 per cent purity – a potential street value of £2 million.

The cylinders were then refilled with sand, fitted with a recording device, and sent back on their journey to Wanstead to snare the gang responsible for the smuggling of the cylinders.

Officers listened in as Watson took delivery of the cylinders, and after realising the liquid was gone, he phoned a contact in the Caribbean saying: “Somebody opened this thing and put something in it…this thing empty…I’m telling you…”.

Watson was arrested five days later, and detectives from the Royal Barbados Police simultaneously moved in on two addresses in Barbados and arrested Watson’s brother, along with a further one kilogram of pink liquid cocaine. A number of cylinders were seized at the other premises.

Although Watson argued he was a “courier” for the drugs ring and had been pressurised into receiving the canisters, records found in the two raids in Barbados showed he had been involved in a number of previous shipments using several different aliases.

In some cases cylinders had been recycled, and sent back to Barbados empty to be used

Steve McIntyre, from the NCA`s Border Policing Command, said: “Drug trafficking is a crime that has great impacts, from exploitation in South American source countries to violence and gun crime on the streets of London.

“I have no doubt that Errol Watson had been involved in this type of criminality for years.

“This was certainly an unusual method of smuggling cocaine, the first time we have seen it in brightly-coloured pink liquid like this.

“It was also a very deep concealment, demonstrating that the organised crime groups we are combating have access to sophisticated equipment and expertise.

“Working with our law enforcement colleagues in Border Force and overseas we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and bring to justice the criminal networks involved in international drug smuggling.”

Laura Tams, specialist prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service organised crime division, said: “Errol Watson was at the heart of a sophisticated and organised conspiracy to import cocaine into the UK from the Caribbean.”

On Monday (January 16), Watson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to contravene the Customs and Excise Management Act between March 1, 2016 and July 21, 2016. He was sentenced to a 16-year prison term by Judge Richard Hone.

Watson was previously jailed for ten years in 1999 for conspiring to supply 3.3 kilograms of crack cocaine. His brother had previously been convicted in Barbados of cocaine possession.