A drugs baron faces a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty today of being the UK boss of a successful global cocaine trafficking network.
Irishman Brian Brendan Wright (60) was the criminal mastermind behind the Wright Organisation, overseeing the shipment of tonnes of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
An investigation "without parallel" broke a major international organisation responsible for the drugs transportation from South America using luxury yachts, for the distribution in the UK as well as money laundering.
Wright denied the allegations during a two-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court. Jail terms totalling over 250 years have already been handed to 19 people in six previous trials in the UK and US.
There were seven trials, one of which lasted 14 months - the longest Customs trial yet and, at the time, the second longest trial in English criminal history. As Wright listened to the judge ask for any mitigating circumstances, he stood up and said: "There is no mitigation, Your Honour."
As the net closed in, Wright fled to Northern Cyprus in 1999, beyond the reach of the British authorities. He was arrested when he emerged in Spain in 2005 and extradited.
The probe was sparked in September 1996, when a yacht named the Sea Mist was discovered off course off the Co Cork coast carrying 599kg of cocaine, with a street value of £80 million, hidden in the dumb waiter.
Investigations showed the Sea Mist had been destined for the gang in the UK headed by Wright.
Customs later learned that another yacht, Casita, had sailed from the Caribbean to the UK earlier that summer with a 600kg load of cocaine, also destined for the Wright Organisation.
PA