The boss of a global cocaine-trafficking network discovered in Britain was today jailed for 30 years.
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 from South America using luxury yachts.
His conviction yesterday of conspiracy to evade prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug and conspiracy to supply drugs marked the dismantling of his gang.
Judge Peter Moss sitting at Woolwich Crown Court told Wright: "You were a master criminal; manipulative, influential and powerful. I accept that you will be a very much older man when you are entitled to be released. I accept too . . . the possibility that you may not live that long.
"Nevertheless, cocaine abuse continues to cause unquantifiable misery to tens of thousands of victims of other crimes committed by those using or seeking to use [it].
"You played for the very highest stakes and won, for a number of years, a luxury lifestyle. You knew the consequences of detection and conviction," the judge said.
Wright - who was nicknamed "The Milkman" because he always delivered - stood up and adjusted his trousers before being taken down.