How Cocaine Trafficking Actually Works, According to a Former Smuggler

Andrew Pritchard was arrested for smuggling $130 million dollars worth of cocaine through the Caribbean to Europe using shipping containers in the 1990s and 2000s.

Pritchard initially smuggled cocaine for the UK club scene using hard-sided suitcases packed with concealed drugs and decoy luggage to evade airport security. He then began smuggling from Guyana to the Caribbean to the UK, shipping in containers packed with legal goods such as fruit.

In 2004, he went to meet a shipment of cocaine disguised as counterfeit cigars, which was seized by a Customs task force. Following two trials and 18 months on remand, Pritchard was acquitted. In 2013, he was arrested in a dramatic high-speed chase and later sentenced to 15 years for intent to supply and perverting the course of justice. He served his sentence in Belmarsh prison in the UK.

Pritchard has published two biographies: “Urban Smuggler” in 2008 and “Empire of Dirt” in 2026. He runs an ex-offender charity, the AP Foundation, to discourage young people in the UK from crime