Karl Richter, 52, of Fourth Avenue, Clase, Swansea, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the importation of cannabis from South Africa. He was part of an organised crime group (OCG) led by Lee McClenaghan, 57, from Chelmsford, and Lea Talbot, 55, from Chadwell St Mary, who also plotted to bring 600 kilos of cocaine into Europe on a yacht competing in the annual St Lucia to Lagos race.
The group used the encrypted EncroChat platform to plan the Class A drug shipment, with Talbot travelling to meet Venezuelan cartel bosses in preparation. The race was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but the OCG switched to other smuggling methods, including hiding multi‑tonne shipments of cocaine in fruit and vegetable containers and importing cannabis from Morocco, Canada and South Africa.
Richter’s role was linked to a March 2022 attempt to bring 408 kilos of cannabis from South Africa, hidden inside a machine lathe seized at Tilbury Port. Prosecutors said he liaised with a South African contact and worked with co‑defendant Kane Ward, 60, from Upminster, to help organise the importation.
The consignment was arranged by McClenaghan, with assistance from Daniel Braithwaite, 61, from Westcliff‑on‑Sea, and Paul Tozer, 61, from Epping, whose textile business was to receive the drugs.
In a separate July 2023 seizure at Southampton, Border Force officers found 268 kilos of cannabis hidden in toolboxes shipped from Vancouver. That plot involved Talbot, freight forwarder Stephen Persaud, 41, from Upminster, food business owner Sundeep Grewal, 37, from Grays, and Tozer again.
At Chelmsford Crown Court on 10 September, McClenaghan, Talbot, Braithwaite, yacht skipper Ian Magee, 68, from Chelmsford, John Campbell, 69, from London, and Ward were jailed for a combined total of more than 111 years.
Richter is due to be sentenced on 16 October.
Detective Inspector Richard Smith, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said:
“The cocaine smuggling plan conceived by McClenaghan and Talbot was daring and would have been incredibly lucrative had it succeeded. Its failure deprived organised criminals of the profits this large amount of cocaine would have generated, and prevented communities suffering the violence and exploitation associated with it.
Undeterred, this OCG diversified into importing huge quantities of cannabis, operations which McClenaghan controlled at every level. The work undertaken by the Organised Crime Partnership, along with the vigilance of Border Force officers at Tilbury and Southampton, stopped these smuggling attempts in their tracks.”
The investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK’s law enforcement response to the takedown of the EncroChat service in 2020.
