Man who hid cocaine worth £120m in artificial grass is jailed

A man who smuggled cocaine worth £120m into the UK, hidden in rolls of artificial grass, has been jailed for 17 years following a joint operation by the National Crime Agency and authorities in the Netherlands.

On 20 May 2024, Peter Lamb, 66, of Mayfair Gardens Gateshead, took receipt of a lorry-load of fake grass, inside which were specially-constructed hides which Lamb expected to contain cocaine.

The delivery was one of a number Lamb had received over a period of 11 months but, unknown to Lamb, this time his illicit cargo had been found and removed from the grass hides by Dutch customs officers days before.

Dutch authorities notified the NCA and when Lamb received the grass rolls at a warehouse in Stockton-on-Tees, NCA officers observed him using a forklift truck to move the turf into the warehouse.

The next day, when Lamb returned to the warehouse, NCA officers were waiting and arrested him.

Investigators searched the premises and a linked warehouse in Newcastle in which they found a kilo block of cocaine and carpets of grass.

The officers trawled through Lamb’s phone messages and paperwork, identifying that in the summer of 2023, Lamb began making frequent trips to the Netherlands and set up two grass supply companies. Investigators found no evidence of the businesses selling products and they believe his trips were to meet co-conspirators.

Officers identified that Lamb received 20 deliveries containing a total of 60 rolls of grass, which they found at the warehouses.

Twenty of the rolls contained hides, so investigators were able to assess that Lamb had conspired to import around one and a half tonnes of cocaine, with an estimated street value of almost £120m.

NCA senior investigating officer Al Mullen said:

“Artificial grass is one of the more unusual concealments I’ve seen used to smuggle cocaine but no matter what tactics criminals use, the NCA will find both the drugs and the importers.

“We caught Lamb red-handed and uncovered his year-long conspiracy to flood UK streets with one-and-a-half tonnes of the drug. Cocaine destroys communities and lives, but this joint operation with officers in the Netherlands has disrupted its supply in the UK.”