Drug ring busted after kingpin sent snap of his beloved dog Bob to crime pals with key detail left on pooch’s collar
A DRUG ring was collared by cops after a kingpin sent a snap of his beloved pooch to pals with a key detail on the pup’s collar.
Danny Brown, 57, alongside other gang members were jailed for a total of 163 years for the £45m drugs trafficking operation.
National Crime Agency investigators identified Brown as one of the group’s ringleaders after spotting the dog’s identification tag.
The key detail being his girlfriend’s phone number etched onto the pet collar accessory.
After investigators zoomed in on the picture of the pup, they managed to use the image alongside other evidence to prove that Brown was involved in the conspiracy.
Brown was embroiled in a plot to send £4 million worth of amphetamines from Southampton to Brisbane hidden in the arm of an excavator.
The events which took place in 2020 even saw a fake auction set up to suggest the shipping of machinery was legitimate.
However, when the man from Kings Hall Road, Bromley, Kent, sent the image of his French Bulldog Bob to Steven Baldauf, 64, he likely had no idea what would happen next.
Baldauf, of Midhurst Road, Ealing, also sent an image on EncroChat to share an intended meeting place which showed his own reflection in a brass door sign.
It seems the individuals communicated to one another, believing the encrypted platform was impenetrable.
Over time, the pair incriminated themselves further in a series of “accidental selfies”.
They even used anonymous handles, like “throwthedice”, to disguise their names.
When officers discovered the dog’s name alongside Brown’s partner’s phone number in the image, the plot unravelled.
Appearing at Kingston Crown Court on Monday, Baldauf was ordered to repay over £1m.
The 64-year-old, who was previously jailed for 28 years in 2022, has been given three months to pay up or he will receive an extra seven years inside.
Philip Lawson, 63, who was also found to be part of the organised crime group was sentenced to 23 years.
It is thought he designed the drugs hidden in the digger and arranged a welder to cut it open and seal it again.
He was ordered to pay just over £182k and was also given three months to do so or face the imposition of three more years to his sentence.
The investigation which led to this conclusion was nicknamed Operation Venetic.
Brown was jailed for 26 years and faced a hearing later this year.
William Sartin, 63, of Timberlog Lane, Basildon, will also appear.
Sartin was previously sentenced to 23 years after the discovery that the excavator was concealed in his industrial unit.
Leading the NCA investigation Chris Hill said: “These criminals did not care about the misery and exploitation that the supply of illegal drugs bring to UK and Australian communities.
“All they cared about was money.
“So these proceedings are immensely painful for them, hitting them in their pockets and are a crucial way of showing other organised criminals that the consequences do not end when the prison door slams shut.
“The NCA continues to do everything possible, working at home and abroad, to protect the public from the threat of illegal drugs supply.”
EncroChat, the previously encrypted platform used by members of the gang to communicate to one another, was a service provided on modified smartphones.
It allowed encrypted communication among subscribers and was used primarily by organised crime members to plan activities.
Operation Venetic was a huge police investigation where criminals using encrypted devices were targeted.
Criminals could use EncroChat to hide behind code names while being involved in distributing drugs, weapons, money laundering and more.
Thousands of criminal conspiracies were smashed when the groups were dismantled during the Operation which saw 746 arrests in total.
At the end of last year, over 500 years had been handed out in jail sentences relating to the specialist team that took down serious crime via the site.
It is thought EncroChat was used by 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 in the UK.
Detective Superintendent Ian Dyball, of the Serious Crime Command, said: “The cracking of the EncroChat network was a landmark moment in the fight against organised criminal activity across the UK.
“It enabled us to intercept the illicit trade of some of the most dangerous criminal gangs operating in our country.
“We have used every piece of intelligence we can gather from this network to disrupt their supply chains, to arrest the most senior criminals involved, and prove beyond doubt that they were responsible for the drugs that cause so much harm to individuals and communities.
“The reality of illegal drug supply on the streets is the widespread exploitation of vulnerable people, often children, and violence.
“Our work to dismantle drug supply networks is ceaseless. Our message to those supplying these substances is simple: It is a matter of when, not if, you are caught.”