Gang courier delivered 11kg of cocaine, 603kg of cannabis, and £1.7million cash
Gang courier delivered 11kg of cocaine, 603kg of cannabis, and £1.7million cash
Nathaniel Armani delivered drugs worth £3million for a London-based organised crime group
Nathaniel Armani was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role as a courier with an OCG
(Image: Taian )
Welsh detectives identified a courier working for an organised crime group who transported £3million-worth of drugs around the UK, a court has heard. Nathaniel Armani delivered 11kg of cocaine, 603kg of cannabis and £1.7million in cash for the London-based gang.
At the request of Welsh officers Armani was stopped by colleagues on a motorway in the north of England and was found with £200,000 hidden in his Audi car - and a phone full of incriminating messages and photos.
Merthyr Crown Court heard Armani was caught thanks to an investigation into the supply of Class A and B drugs in south Wales led by Tarian, the southern Wales regional organised and serious crime squad. The investigation - codenamed Operation Tender - showed a London-based crime gang was behind the wholesale supply of multi-kilo quantities of cocaine and cannabis throughout the UK.
The court heard that at the request of Tarian officers, Cumbrian police stopped Armani's Audi A6 car as he drove southbound on the M6 motorway in October 2023. A search of the car uncovered £200,000 in cash and multiple mobile phones. The phones were seized and examined, and officers found messages, pictures and videos which demonstrated Armani's involvement with the organised crime group. Read about the Swansea boss of an organised crime group who was arrested in a barber's chair as he tried to change his appearance
Nathaniel Armani, aged 46, of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, being concerned in the supply of cannabis, and transferring criminal property - namely just under £1.7million in cash - when he returned to the dock for sentencing. The combined wholesale value of the drugs supplied by Armani was put at just under £3million.
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Detectives found photos of bags of cocaine on Armani's phone
(Image: Tarian )
Judge Jeremy Jenkins said that Armani had been couriering a "quite staggering amount of cannabis" around the country. With discounts for his guilty pleas the defendant was sentenced to 15 years in prison. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter here.
Speaking after the sentencing detective constable Sean Meyrick of Tarian said: "The arrest of Armani demonstrates that Tarian regional organised crime unit will pursue offenders across the UK. The sentencing of Armani is a significant disruption to organised criminality and has had a knock-on effect to the supply and distribution of Class A and B drugs into the southern Wales region. It should also serve as a warning to others engaging in similar criminality."
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