A married couple smuggled tens of millions of pounds worth of cocaine into Australia on 37 commercial flights and laundered the proceeds in the UK, a court heard.

Arti Dhir, 59, and her husband Kaval Raijada, 34, shipped vast quantities of the class A drug to the other side of the globe between 2019 and 2021, it was said.

One consignment alone was found to contain over half a tonne of cocaine, with an estimated street value in Australia of £57 million, jurors heard.

The couple set up companies and faked paperwork to fool British and Australian authorities into believing the importations cargoes were legitimate.

When the Australian authorities discovered the drugs they alerted the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), Southwark Crown Court heard.

Arti Dhir (pictured) and her husband Kaval Raijada smuggled large quantities of cocaine to Australia between 2019 and 2021, a court was told

Arti Dhir (pictured) and her husband Kaval Raijada smuggled large quantities of cocaine to Australia between 2019 and 2021, a court was told

Following a tip-off from their Aussie counterparts National Crime Agency officers found a substantial amount of ‘cash and bullion’ in the couple’s west London home, it was said.

Prosecutor Hugh French told the court: ‘This case concerns a married couple by the name of Ms Dhir and Mr Raijada.

‘However they were very different from the average married couple.

‘It was not the 25 year age gap that makes them different – it was the fact that they were operating in the world of international organised crime.

‘The Crown’s case is that together they played a pivotal role in an operation which smuggled millions of pounds worth of cocaine out of the UK and into Australia.

‘The evidence suggests they had been smuggling cocaine from England to Australia in commercial flights, in commercial cargo, and they had been doing that for a couple of years before the authorities in realised what they were doing

‘This trial is also about the money laundering operation that flowed from that criminality.’

Mr French said Australian authorities searched six metal crates on 15 May 2021 two days after Raijada had them delivered to Heathrow Airport.

They were found to contain 568kg of cocaine in 514 individual bricks, with an estimated street value in Australia of £57m.

‘The Australian police intercepted a consignment which have arrived by plane from England,’ said the prosecutor.

‘One of the palettes that had been sent over was checked and it was found to contain over half a tonne of cocaine in 1kg blocks.

‘That amount of cocaine would wholesale or sold on the street was worth millions.

Mr Raijada (pictured) and his wife used fake documentation and set up businesses to conceal their crime, an NCA investigation revealed

Mr Raijada (pictured) and his wife used fake documentation and set up businesses to conceal their crime, an NCA investigation revealed

‘The NCA investigated not just that particular consignment but also followed the evidence to see the process used.

‘The investigation revealed that the consignment had been smuggled using a complex trail which involved these defendants setting up businesses and creating fake documentation to perpetrate the crime.

Mr French added: ‘In spite of their efforts to conceal their involvement the chain of evidence let back to this husband and wife team.

‘Not only did they (officers) find cash and bullion in their home address, but they also found a storage unit in which, the Crown say, they had stored nearly £3 million in cash, which was their profit from drug smuggling.’

Dhir and Raijada, of Hanwell, west London, both deny 33 charges relating to drug smuggling and transfer of criminal property. One of the laundering charges relates to £522,900 to buy a property in the Ealing area.

The trial continues.

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