Man sentenced to 26 years in jail for importing cocaine
Robert Flook imported cocaine worth £42 million into the UK
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Friday, 01, Feb 2008 03:51
A 46-year-old man has been sentenced to 26 years in jail today after he was found to have imported over £350 million of drugs into the UK.
Unemployed Robert Flook from Eltham, south London, imported drugs from South Africa which included the Metropolitan police's biggest-ever cannabis seizure.
He was sentenced to 26 years for conspiracy to supply 150 kilos of cocaine and 13 years for conspiracy to supply eight tonnes of cannabis.
He will serve the sentences concurrently.
Flook's trial heard that the drug network he was involved with imported some 11 containers containing cannabis with a street value of £308 million between 2001 and 2006.
It also brought in four containers of cocaine with an estimated street value of £42 million between 2004 and 2006.
Flook was one of the key organisers in the network and operated two businesses that were used as a front for the imports.
Three British men were arrested in South Africa in connection with the network. Two of them - 35-year-old Tommy Mackinnon and 56-year-old John Tutton - were found guilty on two counts of dealing narcotic substances.
Each received 20 years imprisonment for dealing in cocaine and 20 years for dealing in cannabis, ten of which are to run consecutively to the 20 years - making an effective sentence of 30 years for each defendant.
This is the longest sentence ever imposed on a drugs defendant in South African history.
Detective Inspector Craig Turner, who led the operation, said: "This case demonstrates the Met's fight against the criminal networks who operate both nationally and internationally and seek to import vast quantities of controlled drugs for distribution in the capital.
"These convictions are the result of months of work between law enforcement agencies in the UK and South Africa, and the sentence represents the substantial damage these drugs would have caused."