Two men have been jailed after Met detectives seized cocaine with an estimated street value of more than £14 million in west London.
Richard Johnson, 47, from Sheffield, was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison for conspiracy to supply cocaine at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday.
Polish national Kamil Sokolowski, 33, pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to conspiracy to import cocaine. He was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.
The pair were arrested after officers witnessed a box containing some of the drugs being transferred between a lorry and a van in a slip-road near Target Roundabout in Northolt just after midnight on November 25, 2022.
The box was found to contain 20 kilograms of cocaine.
Another six boxes were found in the lorry, which had arrived in the UK through the Channel Tunnel around three hours earlier. A total of 141 kilograms were recovered.
Johnson and Sokolowski attempted to run away but were chased by officers on foot and arrested nearby.
They were found to have been messaging on encrypted devices which they had used to arrange the handover. Johnson has travelled to London from the north of England.
Detective Constable Leon Ure, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said:"I am certain these drugs would have ended up in the hands of dangerous criminal gangs and would have resulted in violent crime and anti-social behaviour.
"These men thought they have covered their tracks by using an encrypted device and by meeting at a secluded location, however we still caught them, and I hope this acts as a warning to anyone else involved in transporting and selling drugs."
