Racing in the Dock

In February 1999, customs officers seized 472 kilos of cocaine with a street value of u61 million from a lock-up garage in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and a farm in Middlesex. Eleven people were arrested, from Britain, Colombia and Brazil. So began a Customs and Excise investigation, Operation Extend, which only became known to the public in June 2002. In all 15 people were convicted worldwide in a case which featured five separate trials, one which lasted 14 months, the second-longest criminal trial in UK legal history."