Portsmouth docker jailed over £118m cocaine haul in bananas

Michael Jordan used his port job to make money from cocaine, police said

A dock worker has been jailed for 21 years for conspiring to import £118m of cocaine into the UK in a shipment of bananas.

The drugs, weighing 1.5 tonnes, were found on a ship in the Netherlands in April 2022.

Michael Jordan, 45, was found guilty following a retrial at Portsmouth Crown Court after a previous jury was unable to reach a verdict.

He is the second Portsmouth dock worker to have been convicted over the haul.

Jordan was filmed moving pallets which he thought contained the drugs, police said

David Oliver, 45, of Cornwall Road, Portsmouth, was previously jailed for 14 years after admitting the conspiracy charge.

Lorry driver Ahmet Aydin, 49, from Turkey, was jailed for 13 years after changing his plea to guilty during his trial.

Sniffer dogs found the 1.5-tonne drugs consignment when the cargo ship Atlantic Klipper stopped at Vlissingen in the Netherlands, the court previously heard.

The cocaine was replaced with dummy blocks and audio equipment, prosecutors said.

Dock worker David Oliver (left) and lorry driver Ahmet Aydin were previously jailed over the haul

Jordan, of London Road, Portsmouth, was on shift when the shipment from Colombia arrived at the Hampshire port, police said.

He moved pallets which he believed contained the drugs to a warehouse and worked with Oliver to prepare the load for Aydin's lorry, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

NCA branch commander Matt McMillan said: "Michael Jordan was part of a criminal conspiracy to import a large quantity of cocaine through the UK border.

"He used his insider knowledge as a port worker to make money from the cocaine trade, which fuels violence and exploitation on our streets."

Two other Portsmouth dock workers were previously found not guilty of the conspiracy.