An organised crime group used a cover load of foie gras and duck breast to smuggle nearly 100kg of cocaine into the UK.

Four members of the group were sentenced today following a National Crime Agency investigation which began after colleagues from Border Force became suspicious about the expensive delicacy which was placed on top of the Class A drug in the back of a transit van.

Officers stopped the vehicle in November 2019 as it entered Newhaven from Dieppe.

Once the foie gras and duck breast were removed, officers discovered the van had a false floor and the crime group had placed 97kg of cocaine under it. The drugs had a street value of about £8m.

The NCA investigation proved the driver was innocent but that the van owners Jean-Pierre Labelle, 48, and Tanvir Hussain, 46, were behind the failed importation along with Michael Keating, 56, and his brother Matthew Keating, 49.

Pictured: Michael Keating, Matthew Keating, Jean Piere Labelle and Tnavir Hussain

Kingpin Michael Keating, of Uxbridge, Middlesex, organised the plot and sourced the drugs through international connections.

Hussain, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, bought the van along with Labelle, who is from the Isle of Wight.

Crime group member Matthew Keating, of Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, admitted a previous ketamine importation committee with his older brother.

Michael Keeting used the encrypted communications platform EncroChat to plan his drugs runs.

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