He looked like a normal businessman running Greater Manchester warehouse... it was all a lie

A drugs boss who set up a 'front' company claiming to handle returns for Argos and Amazon was actually trying to smuggle cocaine worth £140 million into the UK.

Darryn Schofield, 45, was at the head of an organised crime-group (OCG) and planned to import 1.3 tonnes of the drug into the country.

Along with underlings Stephen Martland, 70, and Paul Mockett, 50, he set up the fake company and rented an industrial unit at the Bradley Hall Trading Estate in Standish, Wigan.

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In an e-mail to the company renting out the unit, the group said it would 'be used for the storage of house clearance items plus pallets of returned goods from Amazon, Argos and other relevant retailers that need to sell their returns.'

"The company was completely fake and had no ties to any legitimate retailers," the National Crime Agency (NCA) said. Mockett also registered a limited company called BH Supplies Limited, which was used to purchase chemicals for the adulteration of cocaine.

The group's plans began to unravel when a shipping container with the drugs in was stopped at the Port of Felixstowe in August 2022. The cocaine was hidden in 20kg sacks and had a cover load of flour.

The NCA began a painstaking investigation to pinpoint who was behind it. They eventually identified and arrested the trio. When ringleader Schofield, of School Drive, Halewood, near Liverpool, was arrested officers discovered he controlled another property in Melrose Road, Waterloo, Liverpool.

"The property was used to adulterate and mix drugs and officers discovered large amounts of equipment including large cookers, moulds, stamps, a press and chemicals,"