Hendon man organised 'globetrotting cocaine gang'

1:08pm Friday 11th September 2009

By Kevin Bradford

THE “sergeant” of a £1.6 million cocaine trafficking operation has been jailed for more than 13 years.

Gary Wooden, of Hendon Way, Hendon, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court last week for his role in organising a “globetrotting gang” which attempted to smuggle 17kg of drugs into the UK from South America.

Officers from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) uncovered the drugs back in February when two Dutch men, one of them later identified as Ashokkoemar Chotoe, arrived at Manchester Airport on a flight from Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.

Officers searched their bags and discovered the class A drugs concealed within suitcases, prompting the case to be passed to investigators from HM Revenue and Customs.

They were able to connect Wooden and the men arrested at the airport via travel documents, and in April he was arrested by HMRC officers at Heathrow Airport as he arrived on a flight from Buenos Aries, in Argentina, via Paris.

Unemployed Wooden, 29, was arrested for being knowingly concerned in the importation of a controlled drug.

Further details emerged that connected Wooden to another traveller, Roger Brunetto, of Essex, and investigators said it soon became clear that Wooden was the common factor in two separate attempted drugs importations through Manchester airport.

Officers revealed Wooden and a passenger called ‘B Roger’ both booked “flight only” tickets to Puerto Plata on the same flight as Chotoe at a travel agency in Sydenham, London.

HMRC investigators went on to prove that not only had Wooden and Chotoe travelled together, but that the real name of the passenger ‘B Roger’ was Roger Brunetto.

Before Wooden was arrested, Brunetto had been stopped by UKBA officers at Manchester Airport arriving from Puerto Plata while in possession of 3.84kg of cocaine, with a potential street value of £350,000, concealed in a suitcase.

The same trip had also been booked in the name of G Wooden on the same day, at the same travel agent in Woolwich, London.

The address given in booking details matched those of the Chotoe’s previous trips. Wooden had missed the flight with Brunetto on this occasion, but was arrested on April 25 when arriving at Heathrow Airport from Argentina.

Further forensic analysis of the drugs from February confirmed the total weight of cocaine to be 13.44 kilos with a street value of £1.26m. Both lots of cocaine would have had an estimated total street value of £1.61m.

Investigators said Wooden “was a sergeant or overseer of the smuggling operation for an unknown party”, and that Chotoe and Brunetto were the couriers or “mules” carrying the drugs into the UK.

Wooden was jailed last Tuesday for 13 years and eight months. Chotoe, 39, of Rotterdam, Holland, received ten years and 52-year-old French national Brunetto, from Dagenham, was given eight years.

HMRC spokesman Mike O’Grady said: “This was clearly a globetrotting gang. HMRC investigators were able to connect these men and prove their involvement in the illegal drugs trade despite them travelling separately around the world and their attempts to conceal that they knew each other.”