Liverpool drug lord Paul Scott jailed for £4bn cocaine smuggling plot

Liverpool drug lord Paul Scott was today jailed for plotting to import 40 tonnes of cocaine as prosecutors scored victory over a 26-strong gang.

Scott, 32, from Vauxhall, Liverpool, was one of the National Crime Agency's (NCA) most wanted fugitives and was sentenced to 14 years at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to drench the streets of Britain with £4bn-worth of the class A drug.

He was the "last man standing" in a criminal network that has been sentenced to more than 280 years behind bars, ranging between one and 30 years' imprisonment each.

Scott had been on the run since 2010 but was captured in December 2014 when he and his pilot landed a light aircraft on a remote rural airstrip in Norfolk.

The fugitive claimed he was back in the UK to turn himself in and wanted to spend one last night with his family before his inevitable incarceration.

But judge David Aubrey didn't believe Scott and handed down the sentence.

Scott, alongside convicted gang member Paul Taylor, planned to import cocaine from South and Central America, along with heroin and amphetamine from Europe.

NCA officers used listening devices to monitor conversations between members of the network, carried out surveillance throughout the UK, and analysed masses of phone data.

Greg McKenna, NCA branch commander, said: "Scott was the last man outstanding in a plot to smuggle vast quantities of cocaine into the UK. Our determination to track him down and bring him to justice demonstrates our commitment to dismantling criminal networks from top to bottom."

Following the court hearing he was arrested by Merseyside Police officers on an European Arrest Warrant in connection with the murder of UK national Francis Brennan in Alicante, Spain, in 2014, over an unpaid debt.

The Guardia Civil in Spain want to speak to Scott in connection with the murder of Francis Brennan who was kidnapped by bogus cops, and whose body washed up in a bin bag last April.

The 25-year-old's hands were tied together, he had suffered a severe head wound and was trussed in duct tape. His body – found in an "advanced state of decomposition" – was dropped in the sea, allegedly with a concrete slab inside the bag to help him sink.