A 38-YEAR-OLD Kidderminster welder showed no emotion as he was convicted of playing a key role in an organised plot to smuggle £55 million worth of cocaine into the country.

Mark Reeves, who was warned he faces many years in prison, will be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court next month.

Customs officers seized 652 kilos of cocaine when they swooped on an industrial estate in the Bushbury area of Wolverhampton in November 2002.

They arrested Reeves at the scene, along with 55-year-old Louis Hillard, as the two men were recovering the cocaine that had been welded inside a piece of heavy machinery.

Then, just hours later, Rex Newport, 57, and his 34-year-old son Duncan, were also arrested as the customs men brought the operation, code-named "Elysian", to a successful conclusion.

The cocaine was sent to England from a port in Ecuador and, after being discovered by officers in Felixstowe, it was followed under surveillance to Wolverhampton.

When the illegal haul was seized it was the biggest capture of drugs in the country but, since then, a 700 kilo consignment was recovered last year in Winchester.

Reeves, of Wheatmill Road, Blakedown, Hillard, of no fixed address, Duncan Newport, of Dyffryn Ardudwy, near Barmouth, and Rex Newport, also of Dyffryn Ardudwy, denied conspiracy to import cocaine - a controlled drug.

But they were all convicted on unanimous verdicts by the six-man-six-woman jury after they retired for nearly three days to consider the evidence at the end of the eight-week trial. The four men were all remanded in custody until June 7 by judge William Wood QC for pre-sentence reports, but they have been warned they face "substantial" terms of imprisonment.

Reeves, in evidence to the jury, maintained he took part in the smuggling plot, but he said it was under duress.

He said he agreed to go to Argentina to do the welding on the machine part in which the drugs were to be concealed before being sent to England.

The welder said things had not gone to plan and, some months later, two men - one of them armed with a gun - told him to go to Ecuador where the drugs were waiting.

"It was extremely frightening", said Reeves.

"These men knew I had children. I wasn't going to risk the safety of my family. I had to do exactly as I was told."

He stressed to the court: "I did not want to do it. I did it under duress."

Reeves said he went to Ecuador and he did what he was asked and then, when the cocaine arrived in England, he helped in the removal of the drugs from the machinery.

Duncan Newport also told the court he was forced to take part in the plot under duress, while Rex Newport and Hillard said they knew nothing at all about the cocaine.

Two other men alleged to have been involved in the plot are awaiting trial in Ecuador while another man in the United Kingdom has been deemed too ill to stand trial.

After the case, Customs and Excise assistant chief investigations officer Peter Hollier admitted he was delighted with the outcome of the trial.

"This was a well-organised and determined attempt to smuggle a huge consignment of cocaine into the country," he said.

"These men went to great lengths to avoid detection using false names a variety of vehicles, public telephones, more than a dozen mobiles and a complex system of codes to cover their tracks."

Mr Stuart Lawson-Rogers QC, who prosecuted in the trial, said proceedings would follow sentencing to confiscate the assets of the four defendants.

Minister praises operation

OPERATION Elysian was one of Customs and Excise's biggest and most successful drugs operations.

Customs minister John Healey MP, economic secretary to the treasury, said: "Customs have prevented a huge amount of cocaine reaching the streets of the UK.

"This latest bust shows how sophisticated Customs must be to match modern drugs gangs, who use increasingly ingenious methods to smuggle drugs into this country."

Anyone with information about illegally imported drugs, tobacco or alcohol or about VAT or fuel fraud can speak to a Customs officer in complete confidence at Customs Confidential 24 hours a day on 0800 59 5000.

Or you can fax 0800 528 0506, write to Freepost SEA9391, PO Box 100, DA12 2BR, or e-mail customs.confidential@hmce.gsi.gove.uk