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An international police operation has seen an Abbots Langley resident arrested after being accused of being at the centre of a £500,000 drug smuggling business. The 40-year-old, of Gallows Hill, was described as the “Mr Big” of an operation which saw more than 12 kilos of cocaine smuggled in from Mexico.

The Abbots resident was sought by police in this country and Interpol abroad until his arrest in north London. Regular views of BBC programme Crimewatch may well recognise the man, who has been featured after an appeal for information to his whereabouts. He had not been seen since the arrests of a drug smuggling gang and the seizure of the drugs on July 1 last year when around 12.5 kilos of cocaine were found hidden in computer desks. Four men who were behind the smuggling were jailed for a combined 50 years last Thursday, after a four-week trial in Isleworth Crown Court. Officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency had the men under observation for three months, unknown to them, when the drugs came through Heathrow last year on June 29. The computer desks were stored in a loft at a property in Edgware after being collected from freight handlers Southern Cross in Feltham. During the trial of the four men, Prosecutor Julian Christopher said that the evidence concerns observations on the four men and the telephone calls between them over the three months leading up to the importation, and the paperwork found when they were arrested. Officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) followed and watched the movements of the men on different days. The defendants were all too aware of this possibility and took steps to avoid surveillance. Each member of the crew is said to have had more than one mobile phone, one which was never registered or used for domestic use, but instead was used especially in connection with the enterprise at the heart of this case. Even though the men all had mobiles, they would often use phone kiosks as a form of communication. The 40-year-old Abbots man is said to have been aware of the possibility of being watched and would often look over his shoulder because of this. The drugs were hidden in two of the 20 computer desks that arrived at Heathrow Airport.