Overview

• Reporting restrictions lifted at Newcastle Crown Court allowed disclosure of sentences that together exceed 141 years for a North East trafficking network.
• Ringleader Kevin Taylor, 43, received 27 years for plotting to supply more than 200 kilos of cocaine and for his role in importing 172 kilos hidden in welded, repainted gas bottles.
• EncroChat messages detailed plans including a 42‑kilo shipment from the Netherlands, with co-conspirators David Jeavons jailed for 10 years and eight months and David Bowen for four years.
• Investigators cited extensive proceeds and concealments, including £8.2 million moved to fund drugs, £24,000 found in a caravan roof, and £73,500 hidden in a van’s spare wheel.
• The NCA-led Operation Venetic with NEROCU and Northumbria Police dismantled the group, and HGV driver Hugh Goldie was separately jailed for nine years and six months for collecting 15 kilos.