Wright jailed for 30 years

The boss of the most successful global cocaine trafficking network ever discovered in the UK was today jailed for 30 years.

Brian Brendan Wright, 60, was the criminal mastermind behind the Wright

Organisation, overseeing the shipment of tonnes of cocaine worth hundreds of

millions of pounds from South America using luxury yachts.

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His conviction yesterday of conspiracy to evade prohibition on the importation

of a controlled drug and conspiracy to supply drugs, marked the complete

dismantling of his gang.

Judge Peter Moss sitting at Woolwich Crown Court told Wright: "You were a

master criminal; manipulative, influential and powerful.

"I accept that you will be a very much older man when you are entitled to be

released. I accept too...the possibility that you may not live that long.

"Nevertheless, cocaine abuse continues to cause unquantifiable misery to tens

of thousands of victims of other crimes committed by those using or seeking to

use [it].

"Those who import and distribute it call upon themselves lengthy terms of

imprisonment.

"You played for the very highest stakes and won, for a number of years, a

luxury lifestyle.

"You knew the consequences of detection and conviction."

The judge said he took into account Wright's age and health and handed him 30

years on each of the two counts, to run concurrently.

Wright - who was nicknamed The Milkman because he always delivered - stood up

and adjusted his trousers before being taken down.

Wright was well known in racing circles and his sentencing marks the end of an

"unprecedented" 11-year Customs investigation to smash the gang.

It was sparked in September 1996 when a yacht named the Sea Mist was

discovered off course in Cork, Ireland, carrying 599kg of cocaine - with an

estimated street value of £80 million - hidden in the dumb waiter.

Customs later learned that another yacht, Casita, had sailed from the

Caribbean to the UK earlier that summer with a 600kg load of cocaine, also

destined for the Wright Organisation.

Over the next two years, four further boatloads of the class A drug were

smuggled ashore under the control of Wright's gang, Customs said.

In 1997 the organisation imported another load on the yacht Moonstreak. An

international arrest warrant has been issued for skipper Gary Boshoff, who

remains at large.

In February 1999, officers seized 472kg of cocaine from a lock-up garage in

Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and from a farm in Laleham, Surrey.

It is believed the drugs there formed part of consignments brought over in

1998 - the year the Wright Organisation flooded the south coast of England with

cocaine from the Caribbean.

Euan Stewart, of HM Revenue and Customs, said: "We are delighted with this

significant sentence. It reflects Brian Brendan Wright's role at the very top of

an organised crime network that has brought misery to thousands of victims of

drug use and sends a signal to other purveyors of this evil.

"This lengthy jail sentence is vindication for the 11 years' hard work of our

officers, who have successfully disrupted a global drugs trafficking network.

Brian Brendan Wright's millionaire lifestyle is now behind him."

As the net closed in and Wright's inner circle was arrested, he fled to

Northern Cyprus in 1999, beyond the reach of the British authorities.

He was arrested in Spain in 2005 - where he was rumoured to have a villa

called El Lechero (The Milkman) - and extradited.

Jail terms totalling more than 250 years have been handed to 19 people in the

UK and America. One was, at 14 months, the longest Customs trial ever held

here.

Wright was well-known in racing and rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous

- including comedian Jim Davidson who gave evidence in his defence at the

two-month trial.

The Crown claimed Wright - whose main address was Chelsea, west London - used

horse-racing as a "facade".

Wright was earlier banned from going to race meetings and liaising with

jockeys and trainers because of alleged evidence that he was "previously

involved in serious incidents that defrauded the betting public", the Jockey

Club said.

During today's sentencing, the judge said Wright lived a "double life" - on

the one hand he was a master criminal, and on the other an "outgoing, generous,

family man".

Wright's Counsel, Jerome Lynch QC, told the south east London court that his

client understood he was likely to spend the rest of his life in jail.

The barrister said he was currently being held in the high security section of

Belmarsh Prison where he spends 22 hours a day alone in his cell, is often

strip-searched, "does not see the sky or the earth" and hears Abu Hamza make

the call to prayer.

Mr Lynch said he has had a pacemaker fitted and suffers from neck and chest

pain and an illness called Barrett's Esophagus.

After the guilty verdicts were returned yesterday, a shocked Wright listened

to the judge ask for any mitigating circumstances, and stood up and said:

"There is no mitigation, Your Honour."