Ex-detective jailed over drugs plot (From Haringey Independent)

Ex-detective jailed over drugs plot

1:47pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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A former detective who was "pivotal" to the success of a £200 million cocaine-smuggling plot has been jailed for 22 years.

Michael Daly, who is already serving eight years behind bars for a similar conspiracy, was "driven by greed", said police.

Judge Henry Blacksell QC sentenced Daly when he appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court in London.

Daly's co-conspirator, former firefighter Alan Wells, was jailed for 14 years.

Daly used skills and knowledge gained as a Metropolitan Police drug squad detective to try to smuggle 62 bales - more than 1,500kg (3,300lb) - of cocaine into southern Ireland.

But Daly and the gang were foiled when their boat ran out of fuel in rough seas and was shipwrecked off the Irish coast on July 2 2007.

Daly, 49, who is already serving eight years behind bars over another failed drug smuggling operation, and former firefighter Wells, 57, of Blenheim Road, Sidcup, south-east London, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Daly was pivotal to the plot's success and was due to share in the huge profits, police said. He was in overall charge of the logistics and also possessed local knowledge to plan the operation as his family lived on the south coast of Ireland.

Wells admitted being paid £100,000 for his role in helping Daly to organise the logistics.

Detective Inspector Grant Johnson, from the Met's Serious and Organised Crime Command, said: "Driven by greed, their activities would no doubt have netted them large sums of money had it not been for law enforcement agencies, particularly our Irish colleagues, working in partnership to identify and convict those concerned."