A member of an organised crime group was wearing a delivery company uniform and driving a specially-adapted vehicle to smuggle drugs into Wales when he was caught on one of the UK's busiest motorways.
Mark Buchanan was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for 16 years after pleading guilty to his part in a large-scale drugs network.
The 42-year-old was arrested on September 23, 2022, on the M5 near Birmingham. When officers from Tarian, the south Wales Regional Organised Crime Unit, stopped him they found 7kgs of cocaine, worth approximately £700K located in a front passenger seat bulkhead.
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The court heard that Buchanan’s vehicle was adapted to hide the substances within the rear floor of the van, and he was also wearing a delivery company uniform at the time of his arrest to avoid detection.
The Liverpool-based courier had been identified as previously coming to south Wales and so was targeted on the M5 motorway on his next journey with support of West Mercia Police.
The arrest and conviction is part of the wider Operation Bismuth, a proactive Automatic Number Plate Recognition operation led by the Regional Disruption Team in Tarian. Messages on an encrypted app within the phone taken from Buchanan show that he made several other deliveries.
After the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Mark Burge, said: “The team’s relentless pursuit of OCGs across the UK supplying drugs into southern Wales has resulted in a significant custodial sentence for Buchanan and demonstrates the benefit of Tarian’s Op Bismuth in keeping our communities safe.”
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