Drugs gang plotted to ship cocaine to Glasgow and armed themselves with hand grenades
dailyrecord.co.ukA drugs gang who plotted to ship deliveries of cocaine to Scotland armed themselves with hand grenades and planned to recruit "lads who blow heads off".Graham Minards, 37, used a network of criminal contacts in Colombia, Brazil and Dubai while he and associates imported tens of millions of pounds of heroin and cocaine into the UK.
He planned to transport 50kg of cocaine from London to Glasgow and organised a "fleet of vehicles" to move the drugs.When his business partner Peter Bradshaw, 42, came under significant threats after racking up huge debts with those higher up the chain, they hatched plans to respond with violence through their access to a fearsome arsenal of weapons and explosives, reports the Liverpool Echo.Liverpool Crown Court was told on Thursday that the two organised a "very large scale and sophisticated nationwide drugs supply business" using an encrypted chat network called EncroChat.
Police managed to infiltrate the chat in 2020 and found messages indicating the pair had been "involved in the purchasing and supply of multi-kilo quantities of drugs on a daily basis".
The duo also indicated they would smuggle drugs and cash on behalf of others, believing they would make millions of pounds in the process.Discussions included agreeing to transport 50kg of cocaine from London to Glasgow.
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