Astonishing CCTV footage shows the moment shocked border guards opened the bags of a brazen drugs smuggling gang and uncovered £41million of cocaine.
In one of the largest busts of its kind, the quartet were were stopped at Hampshire’s Farnborough Airport with half a tonne of the drug in 15 suitcases after flying in on a private jet from Bogota.
Martin Neil, 49, of Poole, Dorset, Italian national Alessandro Iembo, 28, and Spaniards Victor Franco-Lorenzo, 40, and Jose Ramon Miguelez-Botas, 56, were found guilty by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court and jailed for a total of 92 years today.
Martin Neil (left) and Alessandro Iembo (right) have been convicted of drugs smuggling
Victor Franco-Lorenzo and Jose Ramon Miguelez-Botas also took part in the brazen plot
CCTV caught the moment border guards discovered the huge haul of the drugs while going through their bags.
Neil, Iembo and Franco-Lorenzo, 40, made an initial trip to Bogota in December last year, telling a private jet firm they were ‘leaders in the field of cryptocurrency’ and would be ‘meeting Bruno Mars in Colombia’.
The trio returned three days later but their luggage was not checked.
Bruno Mars had been in the South American country at that time – but there is no suggestion he was involved in any cocaine plot or any evidence they were at his gig or met him.
A month later, the group, along with Spaniard Jose Miguel-Botas, 56, flew out to South America for a second trip.
However, after suspicions were raised about the amount of luggage they had, they were intercepted on their flight back into Farnborough and their 15 bags were searched.
The cocaine was packed in one kilogram packages, covered in women’s and children’s clothes
The gang hired a private jet to fly them out to Colombia and back in January this year
The Border Force found the drug in suitcases on the jet that arrived at Farnborough Airport
The court heard the blocks of cocaine were covered with some dirty children’s and women’s clothes.
Iembo claimed to a border officer that the blocks of cocaine were books, while Franco-Lorenzo merely said ‘oh, cocaine’ when the illicit drugs were discovered in his bags.
Iembo later claimed the group had been in Bogota to do charity work for One Young World, but the charity was not working in the city at the time and had no knowledge of them.