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

ABC (Australia News) Victorian men jailed over attempted ‘astronomical’ cocaine import into South Australia

Published

24 hours ago

January 30, 2025

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In short:

Two men have been sentenced to three years’ jail with a non-parole period of 18 months for trying to import more than 100 kilograms of cocaine into South Australia.

The judge said the pair had followed the drugs from WA to SA on the instruction of their drug dealers in order to pay off drug debts they had accumulated.

What’s next?

The men’s sentences have been backdated to when they were first imprisoned last February and they will both be eligible for parole in August.

Two young Victorian men who were involved in the attempted importation of an “astronomical” amount of cocaine into South Australia have been labelled “muppets” and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.

Rayn Sadik, 20, and Yousif Al-Asadi, 23, were sentenced in South Australia’s District Court on Wednesday after they each entered a guilty plea to one count of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border controlled drug last year.

The maximum penalty for that offence is life imprisonment or a fine of $2,347,500.

More at

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-29/victorian-men-sentenced-over-attempt-to-import-100kg-of-cocaine/104870476

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Military-trained narcos arrested in three tonne cocaine bust in south of Spain: Kalashnikov assault rifles among weapons seized

Published

2 weeks ago

January 18, 2025

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NEARLY three tonnes of cocaine and four military-grade weapons have been seized in a major drug bust along the Guadalquivir River in Sevilla.

Spanish police reported that the men had ‘paramilitary training’ and were armed with what appeared to be Kalashnikov assault rifles.

The presence of such weapons suggests a level of organisation and capacity for violence far beyond typical drug smuggling operations.

Military-trained narcos arrested in three tonne cocaine bust in south of Spain: Kalashnikov assault rifles among weapons seized

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Shipment of grapes entering Canada hid massive stash of suspected cocaine

Published

3 months 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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