Aircraft drug-drop gang smuggled £4m of cocaine

A gang involved in importing parcels of cocaine that were dropped into the British countryside from a plane has been convicted of drugs offences.

Cocaine worth an estimated £4.2m was later discovered at a car wash in Hertfordshire - and a house in Loughton, Essex.

An investigation led by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) found that the gang liaised with contacts abroad to drop the packages in Dorset.

Det Insp Daniel Barker, of ERSOU, said the group "had put significant thought and planning into how they could best bring Class A drugs into the UK".

Three men pleaded guilty to being concerned in the importation and supply of controlled drugs into the UK.

On Tuesday, a fourth man, Tomas Bauza, 44, was found guilty of supplying drugs but cleared of importation during a trial at St Albans Crown Court.

ERSOU said the flights, leaving from the Cherbourg area of northern France, would avoid radar systems and disable transponders which revealed their whereabouts to other pilots.

On at least three occasions, flights were made to southern England before immediately returning to France, "dangerously" entering UK airspace without the required documents, ERSOU said.

Each time, either Rolandas Bauza, 47, or Martynas Piecia, 37, drove to the same location to collect the parcels.

The Bauza brothers, both of Colson Road in Loughton, Essex, travelled to Dorset a few days earlier to explore potential drop sites, the investigation found.

A fourth man, 33-year-old Arjan Lisaj of Barrells Down Road in Bishop's Stortford, worked at a car wash in Spellbrook that was being used as a front for criminal activity, investigators found.

He was arrested near the car wash in September 2024, alongside Piecia and Rolandas Bauza. Officers found two blocks of cocaine in the car wash office, while Rolandas was found to be carrying £37,000 in cash.

Tomas was arrested at a raid of the Bauza brothers' home, which also uncovered 54g of cocaine in the loft and evidence the property had been used as a cannabis factory.

Piecia, of Holst Lane in Thaxted, Essex, is due to be sentenced along with the other three men on 4 August.

Det Insp Barker said the group "went to great lengths in attempting to hide their illicit activities".

"However, the tenacity of ERSOU's investigators let to our teams uncovering vast amounts of evidence implicating each member, and we were able to stop a significant amount of cocaine entering our communities.

"We work closely with UK police forces and partner agencies abroad to ensure that those involved in serious criminality such as this are apprehended and brought to justice," he said.

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