Lance Kennedy’s gang imported £17m of cocaine into the UK in piloted helicopters
Craig Costello outside court(Image: Teesside Live/Katie Lunn)
A drug dealer who helped a Merseyside man import £17m of cocaine into the north east is due to have his assets lifted. Craig Costello’s bank balances grew with dirty cash deposits and investments in Crypto currency, all funded through his involvement in a huge importation and supply drugs ring.
Costello, alongside business partners John ‘Winky’ Watson, Steven Beazley and Dave Wright, managed the Teesside arm of a global drugs ring between 2015 and 2016. They were working under Stockton drugs baron Jon Moorby who alongside Merseyside gangster Lance Kennedy directed the movement of drugs from Spain and Belgium into the UK.
Kennedy organised an estimated £17m of cocaine imports into the country. The extraordinary and audacious plot involved helicopters laden with cocaine, the rental home of Harry Potter film star Miriam Margolyes and messages to the sky laid out in an orchard. The mastermind was caught after risking dramatic water crossings – once while navigating the river border of two former Soviet nations and another after using a speedboat to flee a Thai island.
Kennedy was from Birkenhead but operated from a base in Spain and predominately targeted the north east. To do so he relied on Costello, Watson, Beazley and Wright, who were all eventually convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs in 2021 – after Cleveland Police put them under surveillance.
Lance Kennedy(Image: Evening Gazette)
Kennedy’s operation saw class A drugs flown across the Channel in chartered helicopters by hired Dutch pilots from 2015 to 2016. The flightpaths most commonly used for private journeys were studied and logged, meaning the smuggling runs would take off from Belgium, typically Antwerp, and head to airfields in south east England, including Wycombe and Redhill.
Kennedy’s UK-based colleagues would then find rural holiday homes beneath those flightpaths and rent them – in one case for months at a time. The helicopters would then be able to land at those secluded countryside spots, be unloaded, and minutes later return to complete the scheduled journey.
Kennedy was linked to six flights containing a suspected half tonne of cocaine across 2015 and 2016. The wholesale value of the haul was £17.25m, but it was so pure that police believe it could have been worth up to £350m once adulterated and sold on Britain’s streets.
The helicopter used as part of the drugs ring led by Lance Kennedy (Image: Evening Gazette)
Couriers including Kennedy’s key contact “Robert “Ferry” Stewart, transported the cocaine up to Merseyside from Kent and then across to the north east hidden within secret compartments in their vehicles.
But after a significant operation, Cleveland Police swooped on the gang and started rounding up key members. Kennedy and Stewart were not in the UK, with the former joining the latter in Thailand. In February 2019 the pair emerged when they were stopped in eastern Europe while making an illegal river crossing from Moldova to Ukraine.
Armed Ukrainian border soldiers stopped them near the Black Sea port of Odessa and pictures showed them handcuffed and under guard. They were banned from the country for five years and returned to Moldova which allowed their extradition to the UK. Kennedy was eventually jailed for 18 years and four months.
The four north east pals were all convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs in 2021. But Costello, now 43, was not in court to hear the jury’s verdict – the dad-of-four had fled the country for the Middle East. He was later caught, reportedly whilst driving in Amsterdam, and brought back to the UK to serve his nine year and seven month sentence in June 2022.
TeessideLive reported that financial investigators claim the drug trafficker made £1.6m in illegal profits. Looking to recoup the drugs cash, prosecutors have identified a payment of £16,815 into Costello’s bank account as consistent with drugs trafficking profit, in addition to a further deposit of £3,175.
Investigators have traced £4,012.21 worth of Etherium Classic Crypto currency in Costello’s name, which is deemed to originate from his drug sales, say court documents. Costello’s home in Chesterfield Drive, Marton, was sold after being identified as proceeds of crime, while he was in prison.
Clockwise from top left, John Watson, David Wright, Steven Beazley and Craig Costello
Although the dad-of-four has now served his time – the proceeds of crime application have rumbled on for over a year. Costello was released from HMP Kirklevington, near Yarm, in August on an electronic tag, under the 40% scheme.
The exact amount to be seized from Costello has yet to be settled due to the proceeds of Costello’s house sale not yet being finalised between him and his former partner, Victoria Costello who started divorce proceedings after he was sent to prison.
Paperwork from the proceeds of crime application reveals that the equity in the house is £107,722.80. The outstanding mortgage owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland and a debt to the government agency Homes England were both settled with the cash from the sale.
The separated couple attended Durham Crown Court last month, when prosecutor Steve McNally said Mrs Costello’s claim stems from cash “she says she paid as part of the deposit” on the home when it was originally bought. The CPS has halted the former couple’s divorce proceedings until the finances are settled.
The convicted drugs trafficker has been found to have £137,577 in cash and assets available to be confiscated. A judge will make a confiscation order next year. Costello’s former drugs pals had their proceeds of crime applications finalised some time ago – John Watson, Steven Beazley and Dave Wright paid back less than £300,000 from a whopping £4m profit.