Nose Cone Smuggling

A British Airways flight engineer planned to smuggle £5million worth of cocaine into Britain — in a jumbo jet’s nose cone. Gary Crane, 51, even staged a dummy run with a fake 20kg package flown from South Africa.

Crane was recruited by a smuggling gang as he could move around freely at Heathrow. Pub landlord Raymond Harmes, 49, masterminded the operation in his pub in Stanwell, Middlesex — ironically named The Happy Landing.

But they were unaware one of their gang was an undercover policeman. And in South Africa it was a local detective who placed the fake drugs on the plane.

Baggage handler Neil Weir, 42, turned supergrass when they were rumbled, Reading Crown Court heard this week.

Harmes and Crane were each handed 13 years behind bars last year.
But as a result of Weir’s revelations, police realised they had already smuggled large amounts of cocaine into the UK — believed to be around £13million worth.

The pair both admitted further smuggling charges. Harmes received 13 years and eight months, while Crane, of Upper Halliford, Surrey, got nine years and nine months, both terms to run concurrently with their initial sentences.

Weir, of Ashford, West London, admitted smuggling but his sentence was reduced to five-and-a-half years. Frank Asante, a “principal” in the ring, got 23 years.