cocaine

UK – Kent: Paddock Wood cocaine supplier must repay £78,000

Published

2 years ago

February 13, 2023

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Kent Police Press Release

A drug supplier who arranged high value deals using a heavily encrypted messaging service has been ordered to pay back £78,000.

Marcus Brookfield was jailed for eight years in March 2022 after investigators found he had been using the EncroChat mobile phone platform to purchase blocks of cocaine worth tens of thousands per kilogram.

The 48-year-old’s offending came to light when law authorities in France and the Netherlands cracked the illegal service, allowing them to capture data from thousands of devices from across Europe that they then shared with the National Crime Agency.

Further investigation by detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate established the extent of the offences committed by Brookfield, who went by the alias ‘Cosmic Samurai’.

A review of Brookfield’s finances established he had benefitted by nearly half a million pounds from his criminal conduct and had assets totalling around £78,000 that he had available to pay back. This includes a share of equity in a house, cash and other items seized such as watches and gold coins.

The assets were made subject of a confiscation order at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday 10 February 2023 meaning Brookfield, formerly of Forest Road, Paddock Wood, now has three months to pay the money back or will spend a further year in prison and still have to pay.

Justice

Detective Inspector David Godfrey of the Economic Crime Unit said:

‘Marcus Brookfield may have referred to himself as a samurai but he had a less than fighting chance of keeping the identified assets earned through the harmful sale of class A drugs.‘This result does not signal the end of our interest in his finances, as the Proceeds of Crime Act allows us to continue to seize any further assets he comes into possession of in the future until the entire half a million pounds he earned is paid back.‘Drugs ruin people’s lives and Brookfield made a significant amount of money off of their misery. We take a very dim view of such offending and will not hesitate to bring offenders like him to justice.’

https://www.kent.police.uk/news/kent/latest/policing-news/paddock-wood-cocaine-supplier-must-repay-78000/

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cocaine

Shipment of grapes entering Canada hid massive stash of suspected cocaine

Published

1 week ago

November 3, 2024

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More than 600 kilograms of suspected cocaine — roughly the weight of a concert grand piano — was discovered inside a shipment of grapes intercepted by border officers earlier this month.

The seizure took place on Oct. 15 at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont.

A spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency says an investigation is underway with law enforcement partners.

The agency declined an interview and said it doesn’t comment on the status of ongoing investigations.

CBSA hasn’t provided an estimate of the street value of the 615 kilograms, but earlier this year estimated the value of a cocaine seizure less than half this size at $6.5 million.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/ambassador-bridge-cocaine-grapes-1.7368639

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UK: Drug dealer caught with imitation gun and cocaine after swearing at passing police car

Published

3 weeks ago

October 19, 2024

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Miguel Mota, 18, was stopped by neighbourhood police officers after he shouted abuse at them and then tried to run. In the video above, the officer can be heard saying “You’re bringing attention to yourself by saying ‘f**k you’ as we drive past you”.

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Dad of Brit facing 60yrs in US prison for ‘trying to smuggle £3.5m in cocaine’ insists she is ‘only guilty of stupidity’

Published

4 weeks ago

October 15, 2024

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THE DAD of a Brit beautician facing up to 60 years in jail in the US after allegedly smuggling £3.5million worth of cocaine has insisted she is “only guilty of stupidity”.

John Hall, 59, defended his daughter Kim, 28, after she was detained at Chicago’s O’Hare airport as she was waiting for her connecting flight to Manchester.

The dad said she was offered the free holiday by people she met on an earlier trip to Portugal.

And he insisted all she is guilty of is “stupidity and naivety” as they desperately wait for news.

John said that she is “petrified” – and that at first she could barely speak to her family through floods of tears after the arrest.

The dad is convinced that Kim would have been “forced” to carry the drugs “without a shadow of a doubt”.

John told The Sun: “She’s not a drug smuggler.

“She was told that it would be money she was carrying. They got her phone and threatened her family and that’s why she did it.

“She’d been to Portugal with a friend and met people over there who contacted her when she was back saying they were into real estate in Mexico and she could go for a free holiday.

“Her friend declined but she said she would go.

Read more stupidity

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/31038866/dad-brit-drug-mule-cocaine-prison/

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