Gang jailed, including two Bedford prisoners, for importing cocaine hidden in vintage Cadillac

In February 2024, police stopped a grey Mercedes travelling north on the M1 in Bedfordshire. Inside the vehicle was Juan Valle Tellez, 32, of HMP Bedford, Raul Ruiz Jurado, 29, also of HMP Bedford and Paulino Soares, 33, formerly of Nottinghamshire.

Soares, who was driving the car, was already on the radar of police for his part in previously supplying cocaine.

In 2023, detectives from EMSOU (East Midlands Special OPerations Unit) had investigated a number of people communicating through the ‘EncroChat’ server, an encrypted service used by organised crime groups brought down by authorities under Operation Venetic.

Subsequent data identified several users and two profiles linked to Soares came to officers’ attention, and the Class A dealer was identified.

The more the team started looking into him, another investigation was born – and six other men were identified.

Fast-forward to February 2024 and a search of the stopped vehicle revealed a purple suitcase in the boot containing 21 blocks of compressed white powder – just over 18kg cocaine – with a wholesale value in excess of £549,000 and worth £1.48 million on UK streets.

Ruiz and Tellez were responsible for importing the cocaine into the UK. A number of mobile phones, a large quantity of cash, foreign currency, ID cards and a baseball bat were also seized from the vehicle, along with paperwork and travel documents indicated the two men had travelled to the UK from Mexico and Peru respectively.

The three men were all arrested, and a search of Soares’ home address recovered £13,000 cash and further mobile phones.

All three men were charged with cocaine offences, followed by Naheem Rafiq, 37, and Mohammed Ilyas, 29, both of Bradford, Omer Cohen, 46, and Shimon Shriki, 57, both of London.

The investigation showed how three distinct groups had come together to supply large quantities of cocaine.

In December 2023, a vintage 1953 Cadillac sedan left Peru on board a ship destined for the UK.

But what authorities didn’t know was the car wasn’t being transported as a collector’s item – rather it was stuffed full of cocaine; the 64kg worth £1.92 million in wholesale value.

The car arrived in the UK on January 25 last year. It was collected by an unknown person and taken to a workshop in Grays, Essex.

During this time, those involved in the conspiracy were contacting each other and putting plans in place. They started to mobilise swiftly.

Shriki flew into Luton from Tel Aviv, in Israel. Tellez arrived in London having travelled from Mexico, and Jurado also arrived in to London from Lima, in Peru.

They were all headed to Essex to extract the coke and look after it, while their associates in South America located UK-based buyers.

Ilyas and Rafiq bought kilos of cocaine from the Cadillac in early February. The plan was for Jurado and Tellez to assist with its delivery to buyers.

Cohen and Shriki had also received cocaine from the Cadillac, and further assisted with sales in London.

The group had travelled to the workshop on an industrial estate in Essex, where they dismantled the car, extracting the large quantity of cocaine, which was later seized from Soares’ vehicle.

In April 2024, police raided Cohen’s address in London and arrested him, recovering more than 680g of cocaine, a large quantity of cannabis, £19,000 in cash, scales and other paraphernalia.

That same month, officers arrested Shriki from his address in London – the same block of flats as Cohen. Police recovered a large quantity of brown crystalline substance, believed to be MDMA, and around two thousand in cash.

The men appeared at Luton Crown Court across various dates, earlier this year. They all entered guilty pleas to all charges, including Ilyas and Rafiq who pleaded guilty at trial, and were jailed on Friday, March 7, as follows:

Juan Pablo Valle-Tellez: 16-and-a-half years for conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the importation cocaine.

Raul Ruiz-Jurado: 16-and-a-half years for conspiracy to supply cocaine, and conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the importation cocaine.

Paulino Soares: 15 years for conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of Class A (cocaine), conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of Class A, and possessing criminal property (cash). He was also issued with a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO).

Mohammed Ilyas: Nine-and-a-half years for conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Naheem Rafiq: Nine-and-a-half years for conspiracy to supply cocaine. He was also issued with a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO).

Omer Cohen: 15 years for conspiracy to supply cocaine, and possessing criminal property (cash).

Shimon Ofer Shriki: 15 years for conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Soares sentence also included his previous offending, identified under Operation Venetic.

The Proceeds of Crime Act is now under way for Soares, Rafiq, Ilyas and Cohen to retrieve their ill-gotten gains.