CASH and property worth more than half a million pounds has been seized from a drug smuggling group who were caught in North Yorkshire.

Andrew Wright, from Barlow, was caught flying 34 kilos of cocaine into an airfield in Breighton, near Selby, in November 2014. He was later convicted of conspiring to import class A drugs and sentenced to 19 years in prison in February.

The National Crime Agency (NCA), seized the Cessna plane used by Wright - nicknamed Biggles - along with a car and cash connected to him and the other members of the gang - Jamie Williams from Upminster and Mark Dowling from Brentwood.

York Press:

Pictures of the arrest scene from the NCA, with Wright's Cessna in the background. 

The plane was sold at auction for £30,000, and £65,000 was seized from a company used by the group, which was used by Wright to buy the Cessna.

A BMW car used by Williams was sold at auction for £12,000, £106,000 and €17,500 in cash was seized from Williams’ home address, £13,000 cash was seized from Dowling’s home address, and about £250,000 was seized from two cash couriers convicted of money laundering in connection with the investigation.

Wright had flown the class A drugs from a private airfield in Germany, and the NCA later found he had made at least seven other trips previously.

He was assisted by middleman Jamie Williams, who collected the drugs and drove them south, and Dowling, who had arranged the shipments using criminal contacts in the Netherlands. A ledger at his home showed he had been responsible for arranging importations totalling more than a quarter of a tonne of cocaine.

Confiscation proceedings carried out at the Old Bailey earlier this month ended with a judge ordering Wright to pay a further £32,000, including proceeds from the sale of a second plane, and Dowling £17,000, taking the total amount confiscated from the group to £525,711.

Mick Maloney, from the NCA’s Border Policing Command, said: "Many of those involved in this kind of organised crime see prison as an occupational hazard. Their motivation is almost always financial, so it can hurt much more when we strip them of any kind of benefit from their criminality, be that money, property or other assets.

"In this case in addition to stopping a crime group responsible for bringing in large amounts of class A drugs, we have taken assets worth more than half a million pounds, including a plane and car, out of the hands of organised criminals."

They have three months to hand the sums over or they will receive a further 18 months in jail, and will still owe the money.