Preston and Chorley men charged over plot to smuggle £140m cocaine to Wigan

By Matthew Calderbank
Published 1st Dec 2023, 10:30 BST
Updated 1st Dec 2023, 10:30 BST
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Three men from Chorley and a fourth from Preston have been charged over a plot to smuggle £140million of cocaine into the UK.

The drugs, which weighed 1.3 tonnes, were discovered in August last year in a shipping container at the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, after they arrived from Sierra Leone in west Africa.

The class A drugs had a street value of £140m and were hidden in 20 kilo sacks with a cover load of flour and were destined to be delivered to an industrial estate in Wigan.

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On Wednesday (November 29), National Crime Agency officers arrested nine suspects from an alleged organised crime group (OCG) in a series of co-ordinated strikes in Chorley and Merseyside.

The drugs, which weighed 1.3 tonnes, were discovered in a shipping container at the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, after they had arrived from Sierra Leone in west Africa. The class A drugs had a street value of £140m and were hidden in 20 kilo sacks with a cover load of flour and were destined to be delivered to an industrial estate in Wigan, Lancashire.The drugs, which weighed 1.3 tonnes, were discovered in a shipping container at the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, after they had arrived from Sierra Leone in west Africa. The class A drugs had a street value of £140m and were hidden in 20 kilo sacks with a cover load of flour and were destined to be delivered to an industrial estate in Wigan, Lancashire.
The drugs, which weighed 1.3 tonnes, were discovered in a shipping container at the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, after they had arrived from Sierra Leone in west Africa. The class A drugs had a street value of £140m and were hidden in 20 kilo sacks with a cover load of flour and were destined to be delivered to an industrial estate in Wigan, Lancashire.

Last night seven were charged with conspiring to supply cocaine between February 27, 2020 and November 29, 2023.

Two men were released on bail.

Those charged were named as:

- Stephen Martland, 68, of Lakeland Gardens, Chorley

- Paul Mockett, 49, of Stump Lane, Chorley

- Darren Wetton, 55, of Ashby Street, Chorley. Wetton was also charged with being concerned in the supply of cannabis between December 1, 2022 and December 10, 2022.

- Neil Foley, 45, of Kingsway Avenue, Broughton, Preston

- Darryn Schofield, 44, of no fixed abode

- Neil Maguire, 44, of Georgia Close, Bootle, Liverpool

Paul O’Shea, 45, of Edge Lane, Crosby, Liverpool

Four men appeared at Wirral Magistrates’ Court today and three appeared at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court. All were remanded to custody apart from Wetton who was bailed.

They will all next appear at Liverpool Crown Court on January 3, 2024.