An ex-drugs squad detective who teamed up with a cop killer to smuggle more than £200 million of cocaine has been jailed for 23 years.
Michael Daly, 49, used the skills he gained in the Met Police drug squad detective to attempt to bring 62 bales of cocaine weighing more than 1,500kg into southern Ireland.
But his gang were foiled when their boat ran out of fuel in rough seas and was shipwrecked off the Irish coast on July 2, 2007.
One of the gang was Perry Wharrie, 50, who helped mastermind the plot after he was let out early from a life sentence in 2005 for shooting PC Frank Mason in the back as he tried to stop a bank robbery in Hemel Hempstead, Herts, in 1988. He was jailed for 30 years in 2008.
Daly, who is already serving eight years behind bars for a similar conspiracy, sentenced to 22 years at Blackfriars Crown Court in London. Another conspirator, former firefighter Alan Wells, 57, of Sidcup, Kent, was jailed for 15 years.
Detective Inspector Grant Johnson from the Met's Serious and Organised Crime Command, said: "Driven by greed, their activities would no doubt have netted them large sums of money had it not been for law enforcement agencies, particularly our Irish colleagues, working in partnership to identify and convict those concerned.
"Daly, one of the key ringleaders, was an ex-Met detective, who, once leaving the service, clearly abused the knowledge and skills he gained as a police officer for criminal gain. We hope this shows that, no matter who you are, or what job you do, if you commit the crime, the consequences will follow."
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