Revealed: All the details of how 'The Big Fella' was brought down as restrictions lifted after years

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A moment of drunken recklessness by Cheshire crime boss Paul Green's foot soldiers led to the downfall of the biggest drugs importation conspiracy ever uncovered by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Yesterday (Monday) the Manchester Evening News reported Green, the Widnes-based ringleader known as 'The Big Fella', and other members of his gang - received long jail sentences at the end of two lengthy trials at Manchester Crown Court for their part in a £7bn conspiracy to import drugs hidden in lorries of fruit and veg.

Now, after reporting restrictions were lifted following the end of the second trial, details of how the gang was finally brought to justice can be revealed.

NCA detectives have revealed a key moment when two of Green's foot soldiers, unaware they were being watched by law enforcement, parked up a van stuffed with drugs in a suburb of Amsterdam and decided leave the drugs and go on a drinking bender in the Dutch party city. READ MORE: International crime gang smuggled up to £7 billion worth of drugs into UK hidden in fruit and veg in biggest ever plot Dutch cops had the gang under surveillance and they recorded Green - a ‘wheeler dealer’ who had once run hairdressers and a cleaning company - scolding his co-conspirators, telling them: "If the van’s gone or been grabbed by the police then there’ll be f***ing murders.” He knew a bit about murders.