Semi-pro footballer drug dealing gang jailed after police discover cocaine worth over £200million in lock-up

Two video clips reveal some of the shocking illegal activities of a gang of semi-pro footballers, whom police discovered to have a storage unit filled with over £200million worth of cocaine. CCTV shows how the gang members would come and go from the storage unit with drugs concealed in holdalls and boxes. It was found that between 10 April 2022 and 20 October 2022, they had all conspired to supply in excess of 2.7tonnes of high grade cocaine with an estimated street value of £208,160,000 to £260,200,000.

Drug-dealing footballer hands over holdall of cocaine

The second video, recovered from a car, shows Luke Skeete, 36, parking up in his white van and passing over a holdall of drugs. Skeete had been stopped by police in October 2022 as he drove a small panel van. When officers searched it they found 8kg of cocaine in the rear of the vehicle.

‘Secure’ messaging platform cracked

Skeete was arrested and a further 123kg of cocaine and 224kg of ketamine was recovered from storage units in west London he had control of. During the course of this investigation Skeete’s phone was seized and sent for specialist interrogation. On it officers found a secure messaging platform and began examining the users.

They found each had an individual handle to conceal their true identities and evade police, but after painstaking work they were identified. The group chats demonstrated and evidenced a sophisticated, professional business model the group were operating to supply cocaine through the UK.

Sentenced

Adam Pepara, Shaquille Hippolyte-Patrick, Jamarl Joseph, Andrew Harewood, Melchi Emanuel-Williamson, Luke Skeete and Luke Skeete have been sentenced to over 104 years in total.

Police Constable Perry, from Specialist Crime North, said: “The operation we’ve dismantled here is not some minor undertaking, involving a group of chancers – this is a highly organised criminal group who were supplying drugs on an industrial scale throughout the UK.”

PC Perry added: “[They] had otherwise promising careers – semi-pro footballers with other jobs and courses they were undertaking – but they were motivated by making money from drugs that fuel misery and violence on our streets.”