Drug Lord dubbed ‘Escobar of Essex’ jailed after bungling £20million coke operation
A DRUG lord dubbed the “Escobar of Essex” was jailed after bungling a £20million coke operation.
Jonathan Parkhill, 55, linked to deadly Colombian narcos, had encrypted messages cracked by investigators.
They found he tried to salvage a 30kg shipment bound for Germany which arrived in South Africa by mistake. It was later seized in 2020.
A second operation that year saw Parkhill and henchman Kevin Hanley, 44, smuggle 500kg-plus of cocaine, worth more than £19million, into Belgium.
It was to be split between Parkhill and Colombian groups, but the deal went wrong and Hanley was beaten up, a court heard.
Parkhill, originally of Clacton, was arrested at Heathrow in 2021 returning from Colombia — the base of drugs lord Pablo Escobar before his death in 1993.
Hanley was held near his home in Uxbridge, West London, where a sawn-off shotgun was found.
The pair admitted conspiracy to import cocaine, plus a string of other offences, at Isleworth crown court.
Recorder Andrew Campbell-Tiech said: “On the point of view of the defendants, both importations failed.” Parkhill got 16 years and Hanley 11 years, six months.
They were among 746 arrests in the National Crime Agency’s Operation Venetic, which decoded gangsters’ messages on Encrochat.
A source said: “Parkhill is one of the biggest drugs traffickers caught in the UK for a long time.”