A DRUG lord dubbed the “Escobar of Essex” was jailed after bungling a £20million coke operation. A second operation that year saw Parkhill and henchman Kevin Hanley, 44, smuggle 500kg-plus of cocaine, worth more than £19million, into Belgium. 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. 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.”

Source: The Star April 07, 2023 02:31 UTC