By Alex Marsh-
A man has been jailed after he shot at police investigating a plot to import cannabis from America.
Koby Haik, of Ashfield Road in Southgate, fired at police when they attempted to arrest him at his home for his role in an international drugs conspiracy.
The 31-year-old was found to have been involved in a plot to smuggle cannabis into the UK from America after police seized one of his co-conspirators’ phones.
The Metropolitan Police investigation started after two women who had arrived in London from Los Angeles in January last year reported their suitcases and passports were stolen while they were waiting in a taxi.
Using CCTV images, detectives traced the suspects – a man and woman – back to a car registered to a 45-year-old woman named Eleanar Attard.
Just two days after the theft, officers attended her home in Broxbourne where they arrested Attard, along with her husband, Nicholas Panayiotou.
When officers examined Panayiotou’s phone, they found evidence that the theft was part of a wider conspiracy to import and then steal a large amount of cannabis.
A WhatsApp group chat found by officers contained details of a plan to smuggle 58kg of cannabis into the UK from the US.
Officers also discovered that the group plotted to steal the cannabis from the two women recruited to import it.
Panayiotou, 43, and his wife had planned to pose as customs officers, and pretend to seize the suitcases and passports from the women soon after they arrived into the UK.
The duo were found to have travelled to a hotel and then on to their restaurant, A Touch of Greek, in Chingford after the theft was carried out.
Videos found on Panayiotou’s phone taken the day after the theft at the restaurant showed large quantities of cannabis.
Three co-conspirators, including Haik, were also identified from the WhatsApp group.
Police said that when they went to arrest Haik at his home on April 5, 2023, the 31-year-old stood at the top of the stairs armed with a baseball bat and fired two shots from a gun.
Officers eventually detained him and the recovered weapon was sent for ballistic analysis, which later confirmed that it was an imitation that contained blank rounds.
At Isleworth Crown Court on March 15, Attard, of Sawells in Broxbourne, was given an eight-month jail sentence suspended for a year for theft of suitcases and passports.
She was also ordered to carry out a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement and complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
Panayiotou, also of Sawells in Broxbourne, was jailed for four years and one month for conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to steal at the same court earlier today (April 12).
A charge of conspiracy to import cannabis against Paniyiotou is to lie on file.
Another plotter, Luke Wileman, 32, of Faygate Lane in Horsham, has been convicted of conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to steal.
He will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on May 9. Constantinos Zavros, 34, of Carlton Avenue in Southgate, was jailed for six years and 11 months imprisonment for conspiracy to import cannabis, conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to steal suitcases and passports at the same court earlier today (April 12).
Haik was also found guilty of the same charges, as well as of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. He was jailed for seven years.