Drugs concealed in the linings of books and hidden in board games, legitimate businesses used for their mailing addresses, and brazen posting of methamphetamine and cocaine to Australia and New Zealand using Royal Mail – this is just a taste of a prolific drugs conspiracy rooted in the city of Lincoln.
Officers became aware of the dealing in April 2020 after phone data from another investigation showed a link between suspected drug dealers.
It quickly became clear that this was a drug dealing operation on an international scale.
Officers leading the investigation were able to use intelligence from border agencies, parcel tracking data, and some of the actual parcels being shipped through Royal Mail with the help of the organisation’s security team to establish that the methamphetamine and cocaine was brought into the UK by being concealed in the linings of books, or hidden in board games.
These were then packaged with extra games and books by the Lincoln-based suppliers, and the labels changed before they were boxed for shipping via post offices in Lincoln.
Almost all of these parcels contained a kilo of cocaine or meth, and were being imported from Holland before being shipped via Royal Mail to dealers in New Zealand and Australia.
Read more here.