Drug gang jailed for £24.5m importation

Cocaine and ketamine with a street value of £24.5m was seized by police

An organised crime gang has been jailed after the largest ever seizure of illegal drugs in East Sussex.

About 632kg of ketamine and 70kg of cocaine – with a combined estimated street value of £24.5m – was seized on the A26 in Maresfield on 26 July 2023.

The substances, which were concealed in 30 cardboard boxes, had been shipped into the UK via Newhaven Port by lorry driver Pavel Budzko.

Rachel Bramley, operations manager at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said: “This crime group sought to flood the south of England with drugs, all for their own financial gain, without any care for the misery their harmful commodities bring to our communities.”

The drugs were transported in two vans, one of which was driven by Charlotte Moore, with Stephen Norris as a passenger.

Both were arrested and the drugs were seized, while Budzko had evaded police, but was later arrested re-entering the UK.

The organised crime gang was jailed to a total of 41 years in prison

Inquiries revealed another overseas drugs run had been attempted by Moore and Norris in May 2023, when Border Force officials intercepted packages at Calais Eurotunnel terminal.

The lorry driver on that occasion was Kiryl Laptseu, and the packages contained the DNA of Moore and Norris, police said.

Mobile phone analysis placed the pair in Belgium just weeks before the drugs were intercepted in Calais, with Moore having used Google to translate, “I am looking for cardboard moving boxes”, into French before making two purchases at Ikea on 3 and 4 May 2023.

The group were subsequently charged and sentenced to a total of 41 years in prison.

Norris, 36, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, while Moore, 32, was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment.

Budzko, 50, and Laptseu, 42, both of no fixed address, were jailed for nine years.

Det Con Laura Pettitt said the sentences imposed reflected the “extremely serious nature of the offences committed”.

“Illegal drugs cause harm and misery to those that become addicted to them and to their families and friends, often linked to other crimes being committed to fund their addiction,” she said.

“This in turn impacts our wider communities and affects us all as the cost to society remains high.”