Veterans' battlefield tour was cover for $33m cocaine run

A coach party of Second World War veterans was used by drug traffickers as cover to smuggle $33 million worth of cocaine into Britain. Dozens of packages of drugs were hidden on the 49-seat coach as the group of former soldiers toured historical battle sites in France, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Police and Customs officers waited until the veterans had returned to Britain via the Channel Tunnel and been dropped at home to make their move.

Alan Turner, 53, the coach driver and a former soldier with a distinguished record, and his accomplice, Dennis Smith, 53, were arrested in October last year as they transferred the cocaine into a car at a service station on the M25 in Essex.

Both were sentenced to 12 years after they admitted drug-smuggling. Turner admitted using two other coach trips in July last year as cover to import drugs, the court was told.

After the case, police said the smuggling ring had imported an estimated $186m of cocaine in seven coach trips, although most of these are not thought to have involved war veterans.

In the most recent trip the veterans were used to provide a respectable cover by the drug traffickers who believed Customs would not suspect them. Three holdalls containing 75 packages totalling 75 kilograms of cocaine were hidden in the luggage section of the coach in France. The cocaine was nearly 90 per cent pure.

Smith, a pub landlord, had been responsible for driving the drugs to the West Country, where they were sold. Turner, who served with distinction in Northern Ireland, told police he was convinced he had been smuggling tobacco. But phone records showed calls between him and Smith from July 2004 until the arrests.

Turner, from Charlton, south-east London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine. Smith, of Christchurch, Dorset, had admitted a similar charge at an earlier hearing.

Judge Dunn told Turner: "It is a very tragic case because you have a superb army record ... Class A drugs are one of the curses of the times."

Detective Superintendent Steve Dann, head of the Met's investigation, said: "The evidence gathered during our inquiries revealed that the defendants were involved in seven other conspiracies to import Class A drugs, with a total street value of around £70m ($186). This case should drive home to others who are thinking of becoming involved in the supply of drugs that they face substantial terms in prison."

- INDEPENDENT