BBC podcast explores British cocaine trafficker who smuggled drugs at Cork Harbour
Brian Brendon Wright. Picture: HM Customs and Excise/PA Wire
An investigation into Brian Brendan Wright – the racehorse owner who became one of Britain's most notorious cocaine traffickers in the 1990s – which began with a fishing boat at Cork Harbour, is set to feature in BBC’s hit podcast,
The BBC announced this week that Radio 5 Live's podcast will return with a new series launching on BBC Sounds on Friday, August 7, and will dive into the story of ‘the Milkman’ – Brian Brendan Wright. For the first time, the officers who spent 11 years hunting the racehorse owner and racing regular will tell the story of how he was finally brought to justice.
Hosted by investigative journalist Livvy Haydock, traces how Wright's operation moved industrial quantities of cocaine from laboratories in Colombia, through smuggling routes in Venezuela jungles, to marinas in coastal towns across Britain and in Cork, while building a seemingly respectable life within racing circles.
Across the six-part series, Haydock speaks to former customs officers, cartel insiders and people who knew Wright, revealing how he built a transatlantic cocaine network and examining the decade-long pursuit that led to his arrest.
The investigation began with the Sea Mist: a fishing boat boarded in Cork Harbour, found to be carrying 600 kilos of cocaine hidden inside a dumb-waiter shaft – one of the largest seizures in Irish history. A UK mobile number and a GPS trail recovered on board set investigators on a long pursuit that would stretch across three continents.
Former HM Customs and Excise officer Barry Clarke, who was a part of Operation Extend, describes years spent tracing payphones, breaking codes and building intelligence on a network that rarely communicated directly.
“He's one of the smartest guys I've ever come across. He's got that streetwise, street sense. He's a very bright, sharp individual,” Clarke says of Wright.
“He understands life. And it was clear that he had a very strong reputation as a high-class criminal, someone who was very careful in the way he operated. So, he had a strong reputation within UK criminality.” Asked why Wright was known as 'The Milkman', Clarke says: “Supposedly, because he always delivers.” As the investigation closed in, scrutiny grew around Wright's public life, including allegations of race-fixing and doping, which saw his Chelsea Harbour flat raided by police.
A covert raid on a lock-up uncovered £61m ( €71m) worth of cocaine hidden in holdalls, and arrests reached from Colombian suppliers to Wright’s own son. As the net closed, Wright disappeared, fleeing abroad to become one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives.
He was eventually traced to the Costa del Sol, arrested and extradited to face trial, where former associates gave evidence against the man who had evaded investigators for more than a decade.
- is available as a boxset on BBC Sounds from Friday, August 7.
