Overview
- The sentences handed down on Thursday saw Steven Bullen jailed for 16 years and four months and Zak Archbold jailed for 12 years for their roles in a cross-border drugs ring.
- Prosecutors relied on messages obtained from the seized EncroChat service to link Bullen, who ran operations from a Marbella villa, with shipments and ledgers showing wide-scale importation and supply.
- Court evidence showed Archbold abused his supervisory role at the UPS Stanford-le-Hope depot to route parcels onto specific lorries and was due to be paid about £750 per kilogram for successful smuggling.
- The trial record and sentencing set out that roughly 290kg of cocaine worth about £10 million moved through the depot in April–May 2020 and that Bullen admitted wider conspiracies to supply cocaine, MDMA and to produce amphetamine.
- Authorities said the convictions cap leadership disruption but that asset recovery is under way and police continue to hunt three named suspects reported to be at large while prevention orders and confiscation proceedings are pursued.