Grays man admits trying to smuggle £5.5m worth of cocaine

Usman Iqbal from Grays pleaded guilty at Caernarfon Crown Court yesterday (Pic-NCA)

A Grays man is among a trio of people who have admitted conspiring to smuggle over £5.5 million worth of cocaine from the UK to Ireland.

Usman Iqbal, 35, of Grays, Moynul Hogue, of Clapton, and Joseph Gray of Holyhead, North Wales, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, 15  December to exporting Class A drugs at Caernarfon Crown Court. 

On October 9 last year, Iqbal and Hoque drove to Thornbury, a town in South Gloucestershire, where they gave lorry driver Joseph Gray pallets of yoghurt and orange juice which had 69 kilograms of cocaine concealed within them.

Gray was arrested on the same day as he attempted to travel to Dublin via a ferry from Holyhead. 

Iqbal and Hoque were arrested together a few months later on December 12 at UK custom controls at the French side of the Channel Tunnel. 

All three men were linked to the meet in Thornbury by telecommunications and telematic evidence. 

They will be sentenced on March 4 next year. 

Police found 69 kilogram blocks of cocaine (Pic-NCA)

National Crime Agency senior investigating officer Callum Gracey said: “These drugs would have put vast sums of money back into the hands of criminals who would have reinvested it into more offending.

“Class A drugs are at the centre of violence and misery which blight some of our communities.

“The NCA works closely with partners at home and abroad to fight the Class A drugs threat and to protect the public from the harm drugs cause.”

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