Jail terms for £55m cocaine ring

The drugs were hidden inside a bulldozer

Three men who smuggled £55m of cocaine into the UK have been sentenced to a total of more than 60 years in prison.

Rex Newport, 58, Duncan Newport, 36, and 38-year-old Mark Reeves were jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday after being convicted in April.

The men had been under surveillance for months and were never able to distribute their 651kg cargo, which was found hidden in a bulldozer in 2002.

A fourth man, Louis Hillard, 57, is to be sentenced at a later date.

Ecuador connection

Duncan Newport and Rex Newport, both from Dyffryn Ardudwy, Gwynedd, were sentenced to 26 years and 20 years respectively, while Reeves, from Kidderminster, was jailed for 18 years.

All the men had denied conspiracy to import cocaine, but were unanimously convicted in April after an eight-week trial.

The 651kg haul, which arrived in Felixstowe in Suffolk from Ecuador, is the largest inland drug seizure in the UK.

Downfall of a cocaine-smuggling gang

The court had heard how Reeves and Hillard, of no fixed abode, were caught unloading the drugs on an industrial estate in Bushbury, Wolverhampton, in November 2002.

The cocaine had been brought into the country in a bulldozer six months earlier and the men were trailed by Customs and Excise from that point.

The court was told how Rex Newport ran companies importing and exporting goods from Ecuador and regularly travelled there from his Miami home.

After Monday's hearing, Customs minister John Healey said: "These tough sentences are a stark warning to those who traffic in drugs.

"Customs will continue to attack illegal drugs smuggling, using all the means at its disposal."

Two other men have also been arrested and prosecuted in Ecuador for their alleged part in the smuggling attempt.