Former Mayfair pawn broker jailed for £32m drug smuggling operation

Bashar Fares Al-Safee and Juan David Perea Lopez hid the drugs in a consignment of yams

Bashar Fares Al-Safee, left, and Juan David Perea Lopez, right, have been jailed for their roles in a £32m cocaine smuggling operation. NCA

A former Mayfair pawn broker and his accomplice have been jailed for their roles in a £32m cocaine smuggling operation.

Bashar Fares Al-Safee, 31, and Juan David Perea Lopez, 26, even used the charade of pretending to work for a Saudi Sheikh as part of their plan.

Al-Safee, from North Kensington, London, who once ran a pawn brokers in Mayfair, arranged with Lopez, also from London, to smuggle 400kg of the class A drug into the UK hidden in a consignment of yams from Costa Rica.

Officers from the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) discovered the container at a port in Essex prior to it being delivered to an industrial estate in North-West London.

Inside they discovered pallets containing boxes of yams but on closer inspection discovered they contained false bottoms that were being used to conceal compressed blocks of powder, which tested positive as cocaine.

Two men face a combined 36 years in prison after a National Crime Agency investigation found they were behind an attempt to smuggle cocaine worth £32million into the UK. NCA

The officers followed the container to the delivery address, where Lopez, was waiting to receive it.

Whilst he unloaded it Al-Safee arrived to help oversee the process.

When the task was complete, NCA officers moved in to arrest them.

Lopez and Al-Safee were later charged with conspiracy to import and supply class A drugs.

Al-Safee has been sentenced to 21 years in prison at Southwark Crown Court and Lopez to 15 years following a seven week trial.

The NCA investigation found that Lopez had leased the £17,000 per-quarter industrial unit by pretending to work as an assistant to a Saudi Arabian Sheikh under the ruse he needed the space to store high value cars.

Al-Safee had also hijacked the identity of a real fruit import business and set up false e-mail addresses and a virtual office in an attempt to appear legitimate.

NCA investigators were able to link Al-Safee to pre-paid ‘burner’ phones at the specific times they were used to arrange the importation, and also obtained expert voice analysis to show that Al-Safee had arranged payment for the shipment with currency brokers – despite him using a false name.

The company that sent the consignment was investigated by Costa Rican authorities.

This resulted in the arrest of one of the directors and the seizure of a tonne of cocaine following the search of a fruit packing plant.

“This seizure and the investigation that followed has kept a huge quantity of cocaine off UK streets, and brought traffickers to account in the UK and Central America," said NCA Regional Head of Investigations, Jacque Beer.

“Lopez and Al-Safee sought to profit from a trade that fuels violence and exploitation throughout the UK and all along the international supply chain.

“Working with partners like Border Force and law enforcement colleagues around the world, the NCA is determined to protect the public from the impact of class A drug trafficking, and to pursue those behind it."