A member of a Columbian drugs cartel living in Hounslow has been jailed for his role in helping import cocaine worth millions of pounds.

Leonel Hernandez-Gonzalez was sentenced to 22 years behind bars for attempting to bring 100k of cocaine, with a street value of £24m, into the country.

The 37-year-old, of Bulstrode Avenue, was jailed on Monday (March 30) at Southwark Crown Court, for conspiracy to import the Class A drug, after being found guilty at the same court on March 13.

Accomplices Oscar Grisales-Cuervo, 45, from the Finchley area, and Daniel Valdes Jaramillo, 24, from the Peckham area, were also jailed for 22 and 15 years respectively.

The men were arrested after the drugs arrived inside a consignment of fake plastic bananas at Dover at around 7am on July 18 last year, the court heard.

The consignment was delivered by lorry on the July 10 to a unit at the Oast Park Trading Estate in Hartlip, Kent, where it was locked in a warehouse. The lorry driver was not part of the network.

Hernandez-Gonzalez was part of a cartel which smuggled cocaine inside plastic bananas, hidden among the real fruit
Hernandez-Gonzalez was part of a cartel which smuggled cocaine inside plastic bananas, hidden among the real fruit

Detectives from the Special Projects Team kept the warehouse under observation, while their colleagues continued to monitor other members of the criminal network in London.

At around 7pm that day, Hernandez-Gonzalez, Grisales-Cuervo and Jaramillo met at an internet café in Stockwell, where it is believed they received email instructions related to the drugs.

The court heard the men were kept under surveillance and were arrested half an hour later as they left the café.

When police forced entry to the warehouse, at 11.30pm that evening, they discovered the cocaine compressed and packed into plastic bananas, hidden among the real fruit.

The recovered drugs had a wholesale value of £6.4m, with an estimated street value of around £24m, and analysis showed it to be of 98% purity. Officers also seized £290,000 of cash which was linked to Hernandez-Gonzalez.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Inspector Paul Foreman, from the Special Projects Team, said: “These individuals were part of a sophisticated, well-organised and determined criminal network capable of masterminding and resourcing this complicated international smuggling operation and sustaining it over a long period.

“The evidence shows that this unit has disrupted and dismantled what was a well-oiled, large scale operation.”

Another suspect, Arzine Robert Okoli, of Myrtle Street, London N1, was found not guilty of money laundering in connection with this case.