Steven Bullen was jailed for 16 years and four months after a courier network moved cocaine into the UK through a depot in Stanford-Le-Hope. Zak Archbold, a UPS employee who managed a sorting team there, received 12 years. The case turned on Encrochat messages recovered through Operation Venetic.
Bullen was sentenced on 9 July at Southwark Crown Court after being convicted of importing, producing and supplying large quantities of cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamine over 10 months. The NCA said the network was worth £109 million, and that Bullen had smuggled 1.1 tonnes of cocaine into the UK between August 2019 and May 2020.
Southwark Crown Court on 9 July
The court heard that the cocaine had a street value of £88 million and was brought from the Netherlands into the UK. Bullen was also convicted over 410kg of cocaine with a street value of £32.8 million, 242kg of ecstasy worth £9.68 million, and chemical access that officers said could have supported production of up to 2,250kg of amphetamine worth £11.25 million.
He was arrested at his villa in Spain on 8 July, one day before the sentencing. The NCA said Spanish National Police and judicial authorities in Spain helped close the net on him.
Zak Archbold at Stanford-Le-Hope
Archbold worked at the depot in Stanford-Le-Hope and had been sacked after an internal investigation at UPS. The NCA said he managed a team sorting packages as they arrived and helped Bullen slip around 28 parcels, each containing up to 12kg of cocaine, through the depot.
Encrochat messages showed that Archbold received advance notice of which parcels would be inspected by Border Force officers. They also showed he was due £750 for each kilogram of cocaine successfully smuggled.
Archbold told his employer he was involved in parcel theft, but the NCA said the Encrochat messages tied him to cocaine smuggling instead. The messages also linked Bullen to the handles Domesticcar and Rocketspark, and to a corrupt UPS manager nicknamed King, leaving the court outcome for King unresolved in the record before sentencing.
