
Crime group used light aircraft to smuggle cocaine haul to UK
National Crime Agency
A qualified pilot used his light aircraft in a bid to smuggle cocaine into the UK. Pilot Anastasios Balian, 52, and accomplice Errol McCardo Weir, 48, admitted trying to bring 30kg of the Class A drug into the country, following a National Crime Agency investigation. On 20 March this year, they were stopped by Border Force officers at North Weald airfield in Epping, Essex, after landing from Belgium via Calais. Officers searched the small plane and discovered a concealment had been built into the rear seats. Inside it were 30 1kg blocks of cocaine with a street value of about £2.4m.