A gang that plotted to import cocaine and ketamine worth more than £20m into the UK hidden in frozen fish deliveries has been jailed for a total of more than 71 years.
Samuel Tokeley, 57, who lived in Alicante, Spain and Nicholas Shilling, 63, who lived in Dubai, were jailed for 22 years each.
Scott Richards, 51, of Wickford in Essex, was sentenced to 14 and a half years, while Scott Unwin, 52, of Dagenham in Essex was jailed for 13 years.
All four were sentenced for conspiracy to import hundreds of kilograms of class A drugs at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday, the Metropolitan Police said.
Unwin and Richards were also sentenced for conspiracy to acquire criminal property, while Richards and Tokeley were also sentenced for the import and supply of class B drugs.
The sentences followed a long-running investigation in which detectives read the group's messages on the encrypted communications platform EncroChat.
Messages recovered from encrypted devices revealed discussions around the movement of cocaine, ketamine, large sums of cash and cryptocurrency, as well as plans to exploit legitimate businesses and transport routes to hide their planned drug smuggling.
Tokeley, Unwin and Shilling conspired to import approximately 600kg of cocaine hidden in frozen fish shipments from South America, using Unwin's legitimate fish business at Billingsgate Market to receive the load.
Nicknamed the 'Fish Conspiracy', the importation element alone had an estimated UK value of more than £20m.
Although encrypted messages showed the group discussing payments, shipping documentation, logistics and contacts in Ecuador responsible for sourcing the cocaine, the importation never happened.
Phone messages revealed other schemes to source, process and import hundreds of kilograms of ketamine into the UK to then be sold by drug dealers around the country.
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Detective Chief Inspector Dean Grafton, from the Met's Specialist Crime unit, said the gang was "operating on an industrial scale" and "believed that encrypted communication platforms would protect them as they discussed vast quantities of drugs, laundering criminal profits and exploiting legitimate businesses to facilitate their offending".
The force worked with the National Crime Agency - dubbed Britain's FBI - and international law enforcement, he added.
The defendants were arrested in August 2023 - Richards and Unwin were detained in Essex, while Tokeley and Shilling were apprehended in Spain.
Officers seized cash, mobile devices and other assets believed to be linked to criminal activity.
At Woolwich Crown Court in March, Tokeley pleaded guilty while Richards, Unwin and Shilling were convicted by a jury following a trial in May.
Co-defendant Nicky Bowers was sentenced to 16 years in January after being convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, conspiracy to import class B drugs and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
(c) Sky News 2026: Drugs gang jailed over plot to import cocaine and ketamine into UK hidden in frozen fish d
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