The leader of the plot was arrested at the Pasha nightclub on the Mediterranean island / More than 200 kilos of cocaine are attributed to him and another 100 divided between heroin and ketamine / Together with his ex-partner, he will be sentenced for it this February
A Merseyside man who had been arrested at the Pacha nightclub in Ibiza, in the Balearic Islands (Spain) has been convicted along with his ex-partner of orchestrating two large-scale drug imports following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). One of the substances he handled was cocaine, and precisely at the end of 2024 the largest cache on a sailboat from that Spanish island was intervened.
Details of 23-year-old Eddie Burton's plot can be revealed now, as his ex-partner Sian Banks, 25, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the criminal business on the first day of his trial at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday, February 3, 2024.
Burton was living in continental Europe at the time two lorries containing heroin, cocaine and ketamine were intercepted at the Port of Dover in the summer of 2022. The drugs weighed a total of 307 kilos and had an estimated street value of 20 million pounds. Border Force agents stopped the first truck on July 3 and found 90 kilos of ketamine and 50 kilos of cocaine packed in boxes and a Lidl shopping bag.
The second truck was intercepted just six weeks later, on August 12. Internal agents discovered 142 kilos of cocaine and 25 kilos of heroin in a fuel tank that had been modified to hide the drugs.
Its driver, Maris Fridvalds, a 64-year-old Latvian citizen, was sentenced in March 2023 to 14 years in prison for his role as a courier in the import attempt. But forensics found Burton's fingerprints and DNA on both drug shipments and the adapted fuel tank.
NCA investigators launched a search for Burton, who was living between the Netherlands and Spain after moving from the UK in early 2021. He was arrested by the Spanish police in August 2023 at the Pachá nightclub in Ibiza for unrelated drug trafficking crimes. At that time he was using an alias to try to evade detection.
After being extradited to Germany and charged with drug offences, he was returned to the UK in March 2024 by specialist officers from the National Extradition Unit of the NCA's Joint International Crime Centre (JICC). Burton pleaded guilty to four counts of importing Class A and B drugs.
Sian Banks, also from Liverpool, his ex-partner, pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges on Monday, including importing class A drugs and money laundering. Banks was first arrested in December 2023.
Inquiries conducted as part of the NCA investigation found that between June 2022 and October 2023 he travelled to the Netherlands and Spain on a monthly basis to visit Burton, and a review of his phone showed that on two occasions in August 2022 he smuggled cocaine and ketamine into the UK in his luggage after visiting Burton in Amsterdam.
NCA investigators also discovered messages sent between her and Burton on July 5, 2022, two days after the first truck carrying drugs was intercepted. The messages indicated that she flew to the Netherlands at the end of June and prepared the first shipment of drugs to transport along with him.
In one message, she told Burton that her fingerprints were on the ketamine bags and he replied, “You've never been cut or fingerprinted anyway, so it doesn't matter.” He was also found to be running a scam selling forged covid-19 travel documents at the peak of the pandemic.
The pair will be sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on February 12. NCA branch commander John Turner said: "Burton, with the help of Banks, attempted to transport huge quantities of harmful drugs into the UK, believing he could operate with impunity abroad. The banks played a crucial role in the criminal enterprise, laundering the illicit proceeds and acting as UK-based facilitators for multi-million pound drug imports. The drugs, had they reached their final destination, would have had a destructive impact on our communities, fueling violence and exploiting vulnerable people along the supply chain."
A Merseyside man who had been arrested at the Pacha nightclub in Ibiza, in the Balearic Islands (Spain) has been convicted along with his ex-partner of orchestrating two large-scale drug imports following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). One of the substances he handled was cocaine, and precisely at the end of 2024 the largest cache on a sailboat from that Spanish island was intervened.
Details of 23-year-old Eddie Burton's plot can be revealed now, as his ex-partner Sian Banks, 25, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the criminal business on the first day of his trial at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday, February 3, 2024.
Burton was living in continental Europe at the time two lorries containing heroin, cocaine and ketamine were intercepted at the Port of Dover in the summer of 2022. The drugs weighed a total of 307 kilos and had an estimated street value of 20 million pounds. Border Force agents stopped the first truck on July 3 and found 90 kilos of ketamine and 50 kilos of cocaine packed in boxes and a Lidl shopping bag.
The second truck was intercepted just six weeks later, on August 12. Internal agents discovered 142 kilos of cocaine and 25 kilos of heroin in a fuel tank that had been modified to hide the drugs.
Its driver, Maris Fridvalds, a 64-year-old Latvian citizen, was sentenced in March 2023 to 14 years in prison for his role as a courier in the import attempt. But forensics found Burton's fingerprints and DNA on both drug shipments and the adapted fuel tank.
NCA investigators launched a search for Burton, who was living between the Netherlands and Spain after moving from the UK in early 2021. He was arrested by the Spanish police in August 2023 at the Pachá nightclub in Ibiza for unrelated drug trafficking crimes. At that time he was using an alias to try to evade detection.
After being extradited to Germany and charged with drug offences, he was returned to the UK in March 2024 by specialist officers from the National Extradition Unit of the NCA's Joint International Crime Centre (JICC). Burton pleaded guilty to four counts of importing Class A and B drugs.
Sian Banks, also from Liverpool, his ex-partner, pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges on Monday, including importing class A drugs and money laundering. Banks was first arrested in December 2023.
Inquiries conducted as part of the NCA investigation found that between June 2022 and October 2023 he travelled to the Netherlands and Spain on a monthly basis to visit Burton, and a review of his phone showed that on two occasions in August 2022 he smuggled cocaine and ketamine into the UK in his luggage after visiting Burton in Amsterdam.
NCA investigators also discovered messages sent between her and Burton on July 5, 2022, two days after the first truck carrying drugs was intercepted. The messages indicated that she flew to the Netherlands at the end of June and prepared the first shipment of drugs to transport along with him.
In one message, she told Burton that her fingerprints were on the ketamine bags and he replied, “You've never been cut or fingerprinted anyway, so it doesn't matter.” He was also found to be running a scam selling forged covid-19 travel documents at the peak of the pandemic.
The pair will be sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on February 12. NCA branch commander John Turner said: "Burton, with the help of Banks, attempted to transport huge quantities of harmful drugs into the UK, believing he could operate with impunity abroad. The banks played a crucial role in the criminal enterprise, laundering the illicit proceeds and acting as UK-based facilitators for multi-million pound drug imports. The drugs, had they reached their final destination, would have had a destructive impact on our communities, fueling violence and exploiting vulnerable people along the supply chain."