Drug gang sold £5.6m of Prada-branded sealed cocaine, sentenced to more than 50 years in prison

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Four drug gangs who sold £5.6m of cocaine – including a huge drug brick stamped with ‘Prada’ – have been jailed for a total of more than 50 years.

Vikram Verdi, Dean Riley and Richard Yarker were the key players in a group that sold massive amounts of Class A drugs.

They were nailed after an investigation by the West Midlands Regional Organized Crime Unit (ROCUWM).

READ MORE: Watch cops break into cannabis plantations in the Midlands for £84m

The trio were imprisoned alongside Carl McQuillan who delivered drugs and collected cash from locations across the UK including Worcester, Gloucestershire, Nottingham and Wales.

A fifth man was sentenced in August 2020 to 20 months in prison.

The group worked in part on EncroChat, an encrypted mobile phone network, which shut down last June.

Cash packages recovered by the investigation team

The large-scale drug supply operation was initially revealed as part of Operation Venetic – a UK-wide investigation into EncroChat, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The operation exposed some of the group’s chatter and began a massive operation by investigators in the West Midlands.

More than six kilograms of cocaine, four cars – some with secret compartments – and more than 40 hours of surveillance cameras were seized during the police investigation.

Pictures were also seized showing the group with bundles of money and cocaine stamped with the Prada brand name.

In court, police established that between February 2020 and October 2020, the group had purchased, sold and delivered 56kg of cocaine worth £5.6m.

Four of the group were sentenced in Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday, January 24 after they previously pleaded guilty to concern over a Class A provision. They have been imprisoned for a total of more than 50 years.

Verdi, of Newport Pagnell in Milton Keynes, coordinated the group’s involvement in the procurement and supply of prohibited drugs.

Pictures of Prada-branded cocaine packages (Photo: WMP)

He had previous convictions for similar offenses and was outside the scope of his license at the time. He was sentenced to 17 years behind bars.

Co-defendant Riley received, processed, and distributed a lot of cocaine. He handled cash payments too – usually hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time.

He did much of his activity in his home in Ashby Road, Woodville, Swadlincot.

When police arrested him in the summer of 2020, he was in possession of £17,000 in cash and 2.2kg of cocaine was recovered from his home.

Police also found 3 kilos of cocaine and £25,000 in cash at Richard Yarker’s address in Tamworth Road, Corley Ash, Warwickshire following his arrest in December 2020.

Yarker was also on license at the time after he was previously convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine in 2012.

Riley and Yarker pleaded guilty to the offenses of additional possession with intent to provide Class A and the acquisition, use and possession of criminal property. They were imprisoned for nine years, ten months, and 15 years, respectively.

McQuillan, of Robbins Close, and Woberley in Coventry, was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison. He was a drug runner who worked directly with Yarker.

McQuillan recruited a fifth man – imprisoned in 2020 – to help him transport cocaine to Yarker and the gang. They conspired to buy Vauxhall Insignia and fitted him with a secret compartment to help them better hide the drugs.

The person who recruited him was arrested in South Wales on 29 May 2020 for transporting one kilogram of cocaine. He was imprisoned for 60 months.

After the sentencing, Chief Inspector Lien Lowe said: “This was a complex investigation in which we worked through a lot of evidence; conversations, photos, CCTV footage as well as mobile phone data to piece together what these men were doing and how they were connected to each other.

“Not only have we disrupted the supply chain, but we have also removed a massive amount of medication.

“At ROCUWM, we have had great success in arresting and convicting people involved in this type of criminal activity and this work will continue.”

To report a drug or suspected drug trade, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. You may even be entitled to a reward.

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