Pair sentenced for £4m cocaine haul picked up from plane

Two friends have been sentenced to 24-and-a-half years in prison for their plot to pick up a haul of cocaine from a light aircraft and sell it around the country, following a National Crime Agency investigation.

NCA officers were monitoring Richard David Farmer, 39, of Ballantine Road, Coventry, when he drove to the light aircraft which had landed at Deenethorpe Airfield in Corby, Northamptonshire, on 23 February 2022.

A black wheeled suitcase was brought from the plane and placed into Farmer’s car at the edge of the runway.

When Farmer exited the airfield, the car was stopped by officers from Northamptonshire police and 50 brown taped packages were found within the suitcase.

The drugs, which weighed 50kg, had a street value of £4 million.

When NCA officers examined Farmer’s phone, they found incriminating evidence linking him to co-conspirator Blaine Harvey, 39, of Nunts Lane, Coventry. The pair had been in regular contact and Harvey appeared to be waiting away from the airfield to meet Farmer after the cocaine had been collected.

Investigators established that Harvey would help Farmer move the drugs around various areas including Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Coventry, Kent and Essex.

Harvey was arrested at his home on 7 April 2022. Both denied being knowingly concerned in the importation of 50kg of cocaine but were convicted on 16 July 2025 after an eight-day at Northampton Crown Court. They were sentenced at the same court yesterday (18 July). Farmer was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Harvey was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison.

The plane, which had arrived in the UK from Belgium, continued its journey to Ireland. On arrival, three men from Sweden and Lithuania were arrested by the Garda and extradited to Sweden where they have since been convicted of drugs offences.

NCA Branch Commander Lydia Bloomfield said: “This is a significant haul of Class A drugs brought in on a private plane in the hopes of avoiding detection. Farmer and Harvey were working together under an organised crime group to deal them on our streets with little regard for anything but their profit.

“These convictions will disrupt the upstream organised crime group behind this smuggling and we will continue to work to stop those who attempt to bring drugs into the country from overseas.

“With thanks to our policing partners in Northamptonshire, Ireland and Sweden, we have taken a large quantity of dangerous drugs out of circulation.”