With its neatly tended lawn, solar panels on the roof and potted petunias lining the garden path, this suburban bungalow could hardly look any less like the HQ of an international drug smuggling operation.
But it was here that Peter Lamb, 66, oversaw a vast criminal conspiracy to import £120million worth of cocaine into Britain – all without raising a flicker of suspicion from his trusting neighbours.
The father of three was regularly seen pottering in the back garden of his modest home in Gateshead, and would often stop to pass the time of day by walking his dogs, a placid German shepherd and a springer spaniel puppy.
However, unknown to locals on his quiet street of housing association homes occupied mostly by retirees, Lamb had become a major player in organised crime responsible for smuggling one-and-a-half tonnes of cocaine over just a year.
In another suburban twist, his chosen method was to hide these drugs in rolls of artificial grass brought in by two garden supply companies that served as fronts for his operation.
His downfall came in May 2024, when customs officers in Holland searched two consignments of fake turf and found £13m of cocaine hidden inside the empty plastic tubes at the centre of each roll.
Lamb was then covertly photographed on a forklift truck carrying rolls of fake grass from a lorry into one of two warehouses he used to store the narcotics.
Soon afterwards, raids on the depots in Stockton-on-Tees and Newcastle found abandoned turf rolls from 18 previous consignments and another kilo of cocaine that officers believe had been left behind accidentally.
The modest suburban bungalow where Peter Lamb lived while overseeing a vast criminal conspiracy to import £120million worth of cocaine into Britain
Lamb, 66, pleaded guilty to drug smuggling and was sentenced to 17 years in prison
The pensioner was filmed by a police surveillance team behind the wheel of a forklift truck as he unloaded one shipment
The NCA believe the total street value of all the drugs he imported was £120million.
Lamb’s underworld activities were a mystery to his neighbours, who were shocked when his home was raided by police.
They remained equally stunned when MailOnline spoke to them this week after he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
‘It goes to show that you can have no idea who you’re living next door to because if anyone had told me that Peter was mixed up in drug smuggling I would have laughed,’ one said.
‘He lived on his own apart from his two dogs and he liked to spend a bit of time in the back garden and he’d often be out walking the dogs.
‘He would always stop to say hello and no one ever had a cross word with him, he was a nice bloke who had lived in the area for a while.
‘He was a Cockney and his daughters seem to have Irish accents so he was clearly someone who had moved around. I wondered if he was ex forces or something like that.
‘When the police turned up there was absolute shock when we discovered what they were investigating.’
Lamb’s underworld activities were a mystery to his neighbours, who were shocked when his home (seen on the left of his image with the white door) was raided by police
The street where Lamb lives is mainly made up of retirees living in housing association homes
Another image of Lamb driving the forklift while moving one of his drug shipments
Lamb registered two garden supply companies on Companies House under the same name, Lomax. Neither filed any accounts and have both been dissolved.
Another one of his neighbours recalled how he had previously mentioned his business in casual conversation.
‘I knew he had a business of some kind, something to do with gardening, but he seemed as though he was semi-retired, he liked to be at home with the dogs and in his own back garden,’ they said.
‘It’s hard to imagine that he was the leader of this thing, it must have been something he got caught up in. He’s going to be inside for a long time, he’ll be 83 when he gets out.’
A third person living on Lamb’s road said he had always considered him as nothing more than a ‘nice old bloke’.
‘He was friendly and said he’d set up a turf business,’ they said. ‘He even offered me a roll for my garden at home. I’m quite glad now that I didn’t take him up on it.’
When Lamb first started renting a unit on Sandy Lane Autoparc in Gosforth, Newcastle, no one batted an eyelid.
But when, after a year of trading, no one had seen a single customer arrive or leave, people in neighbouring businesses began to wonder exactly what the nature of his import business was.
One of the warehouses belonging to Lamb that were raided by NCA officers
When Lamb first started renting a unit on Sandy Lane Autoparc in Gosforth, Newcastle, no one batted an eyelid
One tradesman on the estate said: ‘Foreign trucks would pull up on the business park and he would unload all the rolls of turf on his forklift and put them into his unit.
‘There were loads of rolls of turf going in, but none of them ever seemed to come out.
‘Someone else pointed out as well that when they were being carried over in the fork lift the rolls were stiff in the middle but flopping down at the ends.
‘It seems obvious now with hindsight that they had something pushed into the centre of them but no one suspected a thing.
‘Most of the businesses on here are well established and everybody knows each other, but he didn’t mix.
‘He’d arrive early to unload the turf from lorries and then he would be off, he didn’t stop to chat.’
Officers who analysed Lamb’s phone learned that he had made several trips to the Netherlands to organise the drug shipments.
Realising the game was up, he admitted drug smuggling and was handed his hefty jail term.
Following a search of the warehouse, as well as one in Newcastle, officers found a kilogram of cocaine alongside rolls of fake grass
Judge Gavin Doig told him: ‘You played a crucial role in the importation into this country of nearly a tonne and a half of cocaine.’
The judge added it was a ‘significant conspiracy’ involving people who were not as easily linked to the drugs as Lamb.
The court heard Lamb has significant health problems and admitted he had been an ‘idiot’ to get involved in something he was unable to get out of.
NCA senior investigating officer Al Mullen said: ‘Artificial grass is one of the more unusual concealments I’ve seen used to smuggle cocaine but no matter what tactics criminals use, the NCA will find both the drugs and the importers.
‘We caught Lamb red-handed and uncovered his year-long conspiracy to flood UK streets with one-and-a-half tonnes of the drug.
‘Cocaine destroys communities and lives, but this joint operation with officers in the Netherlands has disrupted its supply in the UK.’
