Four men appeared at Bristol Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Wednesday 31 March) to face charges relating to a South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SW ROCU) investigation into the large scale supply of drugs, possession of firearms and ammunition, and money laundering. The men were all arrested last year as part of Operation Venetic, the UK…
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A Bristol-based organised crime group that used an industrial unit in Merseyside to grow cannabis with a street value of more than £1 million each harvest has been sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court. The group had been remanded in custody since their arrests in autumn 2019 as part of an investigation by the South West…
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A man arrested at a house in Bristol with a rucksack containing £18,000 worth of cocaine, 44 ecstasy tablets and nearly £4,000 cash has been sentenced to seven years in prison. Antonio Segura, 54, of no fixed abode, was arrested in August last year at a flat on Hotwells Road by officers from the South…
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Two people have been charged following Monday’s operation near Teignmouth in Devon. James Wisbey, 54, from West Hoe in Plymouth and Fay Miles, 38, of no fixed abode, have both been charged with conspiracy to do an act to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non EU person. They…
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Three people have been arrested on suspicion of people smuggling and eight migrants have been safely detained following an operation off the coast of Devon yesterday (Monday December 14). The arrests were made as part of an ongoing investigation by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SW ROCU) supported by Border Force, the National…
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Two men have been sentenced after a package containing more than 3,500 ecstasy tablets concealed in soup cans and destined for Somerset was intercepted at Coventry Airport. Ricardo Guerreiro (below), 30, from 8 Ile Court, Ilminster, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class A…
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A man who defrauded a Bristol-based company out of nearly half a million pounds and later tried to flee to Canada has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud by false representation at Bristol Crown Court last Friday (25 September). Bolaji Ogunsola, 34, of no fixed abode,…
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A man who delivered one kilo of cocaine from London to Bristol and was stopped on his return journey with £54,000 cash in his car has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. Declan Topping, 24, from Eatock Way in Bolton, was arrested by officers from the South West Regional Organised Crime…
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More than 30 arrests have been made across the South West, with two guns, 17kg cocaine, 5kg MDMA, £790k cash and several high value cars and jewellery seized as part of the region’s response to Operation Venetic, the UK’s biggest ever law enforcement operation. The South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SW ROCU) has worked…
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Three people have been sentenced at Bristol Crown Court today (June 5) following a South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SW ROCU) investigation into the trafficking of women from Brazil to work in a Cheltenham-based brothel. Mark Viner, 62, was extradited from his villa near Barcelona last December and has been remanded in custody since. …
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