Britain’s National Crime Agency has announced that drug traffickers who destroyed an entire organized crime syndicate with a photo of a French bulldog have been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million.
Stefan Baldauf, 64, and Philip Lawson, 63, were drug traffickers arrested as part of Operation Benetic in 2020, along with other members of the group, for smuggling drugs from the UK to Australia. . The smuggler carried 448 kg. amphetamine The excavator arm is worth about $46 million.
Traffickers even set up auctions to ensure the amphetamines ended up in the right hands. The drug, which investigators said was MDMA, was stored on heavy machinery at an industrial facility in Grays, Essex, before being shipped to Australia. The National Crime Agency said it took almost three months to reach Brisbane.
But the scheme fell apart when fellow human trafficker Danny Brown sent Baldorf a photo of his dog, Bob, a French bulldog.
National Crime Agency
Law enforcement authorities were able to discover and crack down on organized crime groups using photos and other methods with partners’ phone numbers on tags.
Chris Hill, who led the NCA investigation, said: “These criminals didn’t care about the misery and exploitation their illegal drug supply caused to communities across the UK and Australia.”
The National Crime Agency announced that Baldauf, Brown, Lawson and four other British men were sentenced to a combined 163 years in prison. The other members are scheduled to undergo a forfeiture hearing later this year.
