Hartlepool man Andrew Cole accused of leading group of UK-wide cocaine couriers pleads guilty at Teesside Crown Court
A Hartlepool family man said to have headed a network of cocaine couriers is facing an “extremely long” jail sentence.
Dad Andrew Cole, 34, is alleged to have organised a group responsible for transporting “huge amounts” of class A drugs across the UK.
He pleaded guilty to seven counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine over six months from September to October in 2020 at a time when Covid restrictions were in place.
Cole was facing a trial along with several other co-defendants next year after previously denying the charges.
But he appeared before Teesside Crown Court on Tuesday after he decided to change his plea to guilty.
He is now facing in excess of 14 years in prison.
John Elvidge, prosecuting, said: “The Crown’s case is Andrew Cole junior was the organiser of this organised crime group and he arranges the Hartlepool-based suspects to courier cocaine throughout the UK.”
The drugs are said to have come into the country via Europe before being collected and transported across the UK by the group.
Mr Elvidge added: “157 journeys were made over a six-month period when Covid restrictions were in place.”
The court heard one woman courier from the group caught transporting £36,000 worth of cocaine in her car was jailed for nine years.
The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Francis Laird, said: “One only needs to do a bit of calculation to conclude that these conspiracies clearly transported a huge volume of class A drugs.”
Cole, of Owton Manor Lane, Hartlepool, will be sentenced on a future date to be set.
Judge Laird added: “The defendant has entered a plea to offences which undoubtedly will result in an extremely long sentence of imprisonment.”
He was remanded in custody after the judge turned down a bail application so that he could go on a pre-booked family holiday to Disneyand Paris.
Daniel Cordey, representing Cole, said his client was a family man with young children and he had got a job with the Post Office.
Mr Cordey said: “He is a family man. He hasn’t been in trouble before or since.
"He accepts it’s very serious.”