NCA release footage of one legged drug smuggler from Brentwood
15 April 2019, 13:03 | Updated: 15 April 2019, 13:20
The National Crime Agency is trying to find a one legged drug smuggler from Brentwood who's been on the run for more than a year.
The NCA have released CCTV footage of 52 year old Richard Wakeling (pictured), who tried to import £8 million worth of liquid amphetamine into the UK in 2016 and was convicted and sentenced in his absence last year.
The clip shows Mr. Wakeling leaving his home on January 5th last year, chatting to a workman and getting into his white Audi Q3, registration number EF66 ZWR.
He left Essex that day and travelled through Iver in Buckinghamshire, before catching a bus from Heathrow to Glasgow and taking a ferry from Stranraer to Belfast.
A week after he disappeared, his car was driven back to his home in Essex.
NCA operations manager Paul Green said: "Wakeling has been on the run for well over a year now and knows we are still looking for him.
"He should also know we will do everything in our power to bring him back to serve his sentence.
"I would urge him to hand himself in. I've no doubt someone seeing this appeal will have information about his whereabouts.
"Anyone helping Wakeling or actively frustrating our efforts to find him could be arrested for assisting an offender."
The NCA said he has family in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Canada and Thailand.
