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| Skunk Gang Had £62million Business |
05-Mar-10
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| So much cash that detectives found £60,000 going mouldy in lock-up garage... |
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A suburban drugs syndicate made so much money as Britain's most prolific importers of skunk cannabis that they left hundreds of thousands of pounds to rot away in a garage lock-up.
At the height of their business Terrence Bowler, a father of three from south-west London, and his associates were importing consignments of skunk worth £750,000 a week. Police say they were the country's biggest importers of skunk, running an illegal business worth more than £62m.
The drugs importation was carried out under the guise of a legitimate flower wholesaler, which brought boxes of blooms into the UK from the Netherlands. Hidden in the crates, however, were the consignments of skunk, imported initially into the UK through the Harwich ferry port in Essex and later through Hull, where they were driven to residential lock-ups in outer London.
The profits were so lucrative that when officers from Scotland Yard's special intelligence section arrested the gang they found £225,000 in cash hidden in a lock-up in Kingston, south-west London, some £60,000 of which was just rotting away.
Bowler, 40, Peter Moran, 37, of west London, and Mark Kinnimont, 40, of Surbiton, south-west London, who were all on the board of directors of the business, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import controlled drugs and conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime.
Eleven other men also face jail in connection with the drugs network.
Detective Chief Inspector Steve Wallace, of Scotland Yard, said the gang "cornered the market" for skunk. "They were making grotesque profits on the back of the misery this drug causes. They were involved in a trade that allowed them to enjoy lavish lifestyles," he said.
"So much cash was generated by the venture that during our searches we found cash rotting away. In the floor of one premises was a safe containing £225,000, of which £60,000 was going mouldy. There was so much cash lying around that they did not know what to do with it. We took the ruined money to the Bank of England as it was no good to anybody."
The flood of money left the directors of the crime gang with the problem of where to launder it without alerting the authorities.
Up to £11m was handed to a crooked employee at the World Currency Exchange, near Liverpool Street railway station in London. No records of any transactions were kept, but police believe much of it was wired to accounts in Pakistan and Dubai.
The profits were such that the three directors lived affluent lives in the outer London suburbs, sending their children to private schools, owning a fleet of cars and buying their homes without mortgages. They spent some of the money on land in Lanzarote, where they intended to built 12 luxury villas, and made trips to Geneva to buy luxury watches.
Police ended their illegal trade in November 2008, after more than two years of undercover investigations, including months of surveillance.
Wallace said that in order to keep a clean record, the top trio of directors never came into contact with the drugs or large quantities of money. "These people are the untouchable ones," he said. "To all intents and purposes they appear to be respectable businessmen. It is only when you look into the detail of where all the money is coming from that you find out."
The gang will be sentenced in a fortnight's time at Southwark crown court in south London.
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For more information click on or go to http://www.guardian.co.uk |
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