Seven men imported more than £1 million worth of cocaine hidden on broom handles.

The drug-laden brooms were hidden amongst an order of clean ones shipped from overseas.

But on October 25, 2021, police and National Crime Agency (NCA) officers raided a unit at Darent Industrial Park, where the mops and broom handles were being unloaded, and arrested the gang.

Now six of them have been jailed with a seventh due to be sentenced.

The Met began investigating the group in December 2020.

During 2021, NCA officers who were separately investigating one of the individuals, provided intelligence that they were planning to import class A drugs from overseas.

The seven men planned to import 30 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value of more than £1 million.

They decided to conceal the drugs by coating broomsticks in a lacquer containing cocaine, shipped in a container via legitimate means.

To the naked eye, the broom handles looked completely normal and were hidden among clean ones.

The cocaine had undergone a chemical process in Colombia to convert it into a lacquer which was used as a varnish.

The broom handles were then ordered in April 2021 – the group being careful to lay down a false audit trail to divert suspicion.

A shipping container containing the brooms arrived on October 23 and was transported to the industrial unit on Darent Industrial Park.

Five of the people unloading the lorry were arrested at the scene and two men, who had also been involved in the group’s activities, were arrested later the same day at their home addresses.

They were all charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.

Six men were jailed for a total of 135 years at Kingston Crown Court yesterday (December 14).

Nigel Rogers, 61, of Olympia Way Whitstable, was sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment.

Frank Asante, 49, of Ledbury Road, Kensington and Chelsea, was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment.

Yuni Alexis Pacheco Miranda, 54, of The Roundway, Tottenham, was sentenced to 29 years' imprisonment.

Daniel Oliver, 52, of The Parade, Margate, was sentenced to 29 years' imprisonment.

Ermal Shtrezi, 40, of Lyndhurst Road, Haringey, was sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment.

Terrence Allen, 74, of Wordsworth Road, Welling, was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment.

A seventh man, William Adams, 75, of Brunswick Field, Teynham, will be sentenced at a later date.

The conviction followed an eight-month trial after Specialist Crime detectives carried out an eight-month surveillance investigation.

Det Sgt Nicola Hawkins, who led the investigation said: “These men were a group of career criminals with previous convictions for similar offences.

“Miranda and his accomplices played a hands-on role in the importation and were caught red-handed by officers, who had been diligently watching and building strong evidence against them.

“The data officers discovered on Miranda’s phone during the trial was a treasure trove of evidence incriminating him, including images showing the cocaine being painted onto the broom handles in Columbia.

“Our priority is to keep Londoners safe – drugs cause misery to communities and the associated issues plague local residents.

“The Met is taking out the organised supply of drugs into the UK at the top of the chain and removing those involved at all levels off the streets of London.

“In order to continue to achieve this objective, the Met continues to work closely with our partners at the NCA.”

Dean Wallbank, a senior investigating officer with the National Crime Agency, added: “The NCA is committed to tackling drug trafficking, no matter how hard offenders attempt to hide their activity, and we work tirelessly to dismantle gangs like this one every single day.

“Once we established that Daniel Oliver was working with a London-based crime group already under investigation by the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, we shared our intelligence in support of a joint approach to tackling this organised criminal network.

“The results today show what we can achieve through collaboration with our policing colleagues, ensuring that drugs are kept off the streets and the public is kept safe from serious and organised crime.”