Drugs king helped smuggle £10m cocaine, jury told

A drugs gang smuggled £10m of cocaine into Britain over five weeks with the help of an inside man dubbed the "King", a court has heard.

Parcels of class A drugs were shipped from the Netherlands to a UPS depot in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, all addressed to a semi-detached house in Upminster, east London.

Members of the drug trafficking gang, who used aliases including "Ghost", "Veggie Kray" and "Cuddly Bandit", paid about £2,000 for each kilo of cocaine shipped into the UK, Southwark Crown Court was told.

Zak Archbold, 30, from Braintree in Essex, is on trial having denied being the gang's inside man at the depot between January and July 2020.

Jurors were told between mid-April and the end of May 2020 that almost 300 parcels of drugs - with an estimated wholesale value of £10m - were smuggled through the depot.

Archbold is accused of using his role - supervising the loading of delivery vans - to ensure the drugs got through.

Encrochat messages recovered by police showed a UPS worker named "King" was being paid £750 by the gang for every kilo of cocaine successfully shipped in.

Prosecutor Jenny Burgess said: "It's plain 'King' was involved in the conspiracy, the question is whether 'King' is Zak Archbold."

She said Archbold was "running the show" in Stanford-le-Hope and used his job "to facilitate the safe passage of parcels to the drivers for onward delivery".

The court heard one member of the conspiracy, Steven Bullen, had already pleaded guilty for his part in the operation.

However, three others accused of similar offending were still "at large".

Burgess said: "This is a case about drug trafficking and the importation of cocaine into the UK through UPS, an international parcel delivery company."

Burgess said Archbold denied he was the person referred to by the gang as "King".

The smuggling operation was uncovered when a UPS delivery driver was suspected of stealing money handed over by customers when they received parcels, jurors were told.

When questioned by UPS, Archbold admitted knowing about the stolen parcel cash, but denied any knowledge of drug smuggling.

He denies conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug of class A and the trial continues.

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