Video shows the moment armed police swooped on a group of men who imported more than £1 million worth of cocaine - hidden in a varnish coating on broom handles.
Police arrested the men at an industrial estate in Darenth, Kent, as they unloaded the valuable shipment of class A drugs from Colombia, South America.
Six of the men were jailed at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday, for a combined total of 135 years, while a seventh is yet to be sentenced.
Scotland Yard began investigating the group in December 2020.
In 2021, officers from the National Crime Agency – who were separately investigating one of the men, informed the Met the group were planning to import class A drugs from overseas.
They planned to import 30kg of cocaine, with a street value of more than £1 million.
The drugs were imported to the UK by "coating broomsticks in a lacquer containing cocaine, shipped in a container via legitimate means", said the Met.
"To the naked eye, the broom handles looked completely normal and were concealed with other bundles of normal broom handles.
"The cocaine underwent a chemical process in Colombia to convert it into a lacquer which was used to varnish the broom handles.
"The broom handles were ordered from Colombia in April 2021, the group being careful to lay down a false audit trail to divert suspicion.
"A shipping container storing the brooms arrived on October 23, 2021 and transported to an industrial unit."
Two days later, police and NCA officers swooped on the unit on the Darenth Industrial Estate, Kent, where the mops and broom handles were being unloaded.
Five of the people unloading the lorry were arrested at the scene and two men, who had also been involved in the group’s activities, were arrested later the same day at their home addresses.
The men - from Kent and London - were all charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.
Six of the men were jailed at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday, for a combined total of 135 years.
Nigel Rogers, 61, of Olympia Way in Whitstable, Kent; and Ermal Shtrezi, 40, of Lyndhurst Road, Haringey, were both sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment.
Frank Asante, 49, of Ledbury Road, Kensington and Chelsea, was sentenced to 18 years.
Yuni Alexis Pacheco Miranda, 54, of The Roundway, Tottenham, was sentenced to 29 years. So too was Daniel Oliver, 52, of The Parade, Margate.
Terrence Allen, 74, of Wordsworth Road, Welling, was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
A seventh man, William Adams, 75, of Brunswick Field, Teynham, Kent, will be sentenced at a later date.
Detective Sergeant Nicola Hawkins who led the investigation said: “These men were a group of career criminals with previous convictions for similar offences.
"Miranda and his accomplices played a hands-on role in the importation and were caught red handed by officers, who had been diligently watching and building strong evidence against them.
“The data officers discovered on Miranda’s phone during the trial was a treasure trove of evidence incriminating him, including images showing the cocaine being painted onto the broom handles in Columbia.
“Our priority is to keep Londoners safe – drugs cause misery to communities and the associated issues plague local residents.
"The Met is taking out the organised supply of drugs into the UK at the top of the chain and removing those involved at all levels off the streets of London. In order to continue to achieve this objective, the Met continues to work closely with our partners at the NCA.”
Dean Wallbank, Senior Investigating Officer from the National Crime Agency, added: "Once we established that Daniel Oliver was working with a London-based crime group already under investigation by the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, we shared our intelligence in support of a joint approach to tacking this organised criminal network.
“The results today show what we can achieve through collaboration with our policing colleagues, ensuring that drugs are kept off the streets and the public is kept safe from serious and organised crime.”
