A dad exploited an international network of criminal contacts based in countries including Colombia, Brazil and Dubai to flood the UK with tens of millions of pounds of cocaine and heroin. Graham Minards imported more than 1,300kg of class A drugs and is now beginning a lengthy jail term.
Minards, who used the pseudonym “Calm Tea” was described as a “leading player nationally” and being “in the higher echelons” of organised crime. He and his business partner Peter Bradshaw armed themselves with hand grenades and were ready to recruit "lads who blow any c***'s head off" in order to fend off serious threats after falling into large sums of debt, Liverpool Echo reports.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how the two men used encrypted communications platform EncroChat to organise their "very large scale and sophisticated nationwide drugs supply business". A series of messages from between March and June 2020, recovered when the network was infiltrated by law enforcement authorities, showed that they had been "involved in the purchasing and supply of multi-kilo quantities of drugs on a daily basis" and would also move drugs and cash on behalf of others - "believing they would make millions of pounds" in doing do.
