Two drug dealers have been jailed for 17 years after 20kg of cocaine with a potential street value of over £1.5 million was found in an industrial unit.

Daniel Reuter, aged 34, of Church Road, Billericay, and Kyle Cookson, aged 32, of Gladden Fields, South Woodham Ferrers, were stopped in a van by officers from the joint NCA and Metropolitan Police Service’s Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) outside an industrial unit on Ash Tree Farm Industrial Estate, Roxwell, in July 2018.

An initial search of the cargo area at the industrial estate revealed a carrier bag containing envelopes with five one-kilo blocks inside, packed in with boxes of frozen food. Inside the unit, another ten kilos were found in a safe.

A further five kilos were recovered from the van.

Officers discovered another van at the unit had been fitted with a purpose-built, steel void, accessed by a removable wooden floor, which was used to conceal drugs.

A small amount of cash and two luxury watches were recovered from Reuter’s home address during a separate search.

Reuter and Cookson both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and were sentenced to nine years and eight years respectively at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday.

Spencer Barnett from the Organised Crime Partnership, said:

“Reuter and Cookson used the industrial unit to coordinate their illicit activities, shown by the heat sealing machines, brown tape and other items of packaging found at the site.”

“The sentencing today is a result of the OCP’s efforts to protect communities from the violence, gang culture and criminal activity fuelled by the illegal supply of class A drugs.”