UK: Drug baron smuggled £5million worth of cocaine hidden in watermelons
Kevin Hanley, 52, who was considered the 'top, top man' in the drugs world, was also the brains behind plots to deal kilos of cannabis and amphetamines and launder millions of pounds in cash, a court heard.
The Old Bailey was told that Hanley, of Fulham, south west London, had been the key lieutenant of 'Mr Big' Brian Brendan Wright, an Irish gangster known as the Milkman because he always delivered.
After Wright was brought down by a massive police operation, and sentenced to 30 years in jail in 2007, Hanley set up an international trafficking ring.
He used a wholesale food business in London's Covent Garden market as a front for the transportation of Venezuelan cocaine by lorry from southern Europe to Britain, hiding £5million of cocaine inside watermelons and pomegranates.
Hanley's new venture was finally broken up in 2012 after a surveillance operation led to the arrest of his gang and the seizure of £2.5m of cocaine and £2m in cash.
His safe house in Chelsea was raided by police, but Hanley escaped and went on the run with his Greek television presenter lover, Chrysi Minadaki. But Hanley was caught in a sting eight months later when, in Greece last July he was lured to an Irish pub in Athens to watch the British and Irish Lions in their rugby triumph over Australia on television.
Following his extradition back to Britain, Hanley pleaded guilty to the drug smuggling conspiracy and yesterday was sentenced to 17 years and four months in jail.
Minadaki, 45, and grocer John Fowler, 58, who acted as his right-hand man, were jailed for 17 years and 16 years respectively.
All three were convicted of plotting to supply heroin, amphetamines and cannabis, as well as money laundering.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
