British man pleads guilty in NY over N. Korea drugs

NEW YORK - A British man pleaded guilty in New York on Thursday to conspiring to import 100 kilos of dangerously pure North Korean methamphetamines into the United States, American prosecutors said.

Scott Stammers, 46, was one of five defendants arrested by authorities in Thailand in September 2013 on suspicion of preparing to ship the drugs by boat.

He faces 10 years to life in prison when sentenced at a future date by a US judge. Three of the other defendants pleaded guilty earlier this month.

The fifth, 32-year-old Philip Shackels, is scheduled to go on trial in New York on September 21.

Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara thanked authorities in Liberia, Romania and Thailand for assisting with the US investigation.

"Stammers' scheme ended not with the North Korean methamphetamine flooding American streets as he had intended, but rather with a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court," he said in a statement.

Defendants Ye Tiong Tan Lim and Kelly Allan Reyes Peralta belonged to a criminal gang, which claimed to have stockpiled one ton of North Korean methamphetamines in the Philippines for storage, court documents say.