Men used haulage firm to smuggle drugs into UK

Ryan Dobb-Clarke was the operations manager for Merc Trans Ltd and Peter Crunkhurn was a HGV driver

Two men have been jailed for their part in an organised crime group that used a Scunthorpe haulage firm as a front to smuggle more than £23m of drugs into the UK.

A lorry, representing Merc Trans Ltd, was stopped in February 2023 at the port of Killingholme, Lincolnshire, with 290kg (630lbs) of cocaine hidden among frozen mushrooms.

Ryan Dobb-Clarke, 30, of Linnet Garth, Scunthorpe, and Peter Crunkhurn, 30, of Cottage Beck Road in Scunthorpe, were sentenced to 18 years and 12 years respectively at Grimsby Crown Court earlier, with half to be spent on license.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the drugs would have "fuelled violence and the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults".

Darryl Sellars was driving the lorry that was found to have £23m of cocaine in it at the port of Killingholme

Dobb-Clarke, operations manager at the haulage firm, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import class A drugs and conspiracy to supply class A drugs, while Crankhurn, a self-employed HGV driver, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

The court heard that between January and February 2023 cocaine had been imported on several occasions from Holland to the UK.

The court was told the cocaine was being transported to places such as South Wales and that Crankhurn had used a car on two occasions to drive the drugs to the next destination for onward supply.

Dobb-Clarke received £50,000 cash deposits in financial returns for the company as a result of the importations, his Honour Judge Mark Bury told the court.

Judge Bury also said it would be fair to assume that one metric ton of high-value cocaine was transported within the two-month period.

"The reality is Merc Trans was suffering, and this was his [Dobb-Clarke's] way of keeping the company afloat," he said.

The £23m worth of cocaine was hidden among a consignment of frozen mushrooms

Darryl Sellars, 35, from Crowle, North Lincolnshire, was the driver of the lorry found at the port of Killingholme and was sentenced on 22 June 2023 to 13-and-a-half years in jail after pleading guilty to importing class A drugs.

With an additional charge of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, which he pleaded guilty to, Judge Bury sentenced Sellars to a further 10 years, which will run concurrently with his existing sentence.

Julie Booker, NCA branch commander, said: "These men mistakenly thought they could hide their criminality behind a legitimate company.

"This investigation has prevented a huge amount of class A drugs reaching the UK county lines supply chain, where it would have fuelled violence and the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults."