Drugs lord who ran £20,000,000 cocaine ring jailed for 14 years after capture in Thailand

A drugs kingpin who spent two years on the run in Thailand has been jailed for 14 years over his role in a huge multi-million-pound trafficking ring.

Ben Ransome, 29, was the leader of a gang that moved 200kg of cocaine in less than two months in early 2022. They also supplied £175,000 of ketamine.

The wholesale value of the cocaine was £38,000 per kilo, Basildon Crown Court heard, totalling £7.6 million. But on the street, a kilo of cocaine can be worth around £100,000.

Ransome fled to Thailand as the net began to close around the gang in March of that year and spent the next three years living in a luxury villa on the tropical island of Phuket.

But he continued to pull the strings in the outfit, directing couriers across the country supplying ‘commercial amounts’ of drugs.

By the time he was tracked down to Thailand earlier this year Ransome had reinvented himself as a prizefighter, competing under the name ‘Billy Roberts’.

He spent nearly a year at the hellhole Central Bangkok Prison awaiting extradition back to the UK.

Ransome was today jailed for 14 years after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and ketamine, conspiracy to possess criminal property and supplying cocaine.

Following the sentencing, Detective Inspector Yoni Adler said: ‘Ransome tried to turn a substantial profit by running a criminal enterprise that spanned across the southeast of England.

‘This vast supply in illegal substances doubtless fuelled extensive violence, threats and the use of weapons associated with his drug dealing customer base.

‘Distanced from this untold harm as a wholesale supplier, Ransome worked at arm’s length, trying to make a comfortable living out of sight of the misery of the drugs trade.

‘He watched as we took down each of his associates, one by one.

‘At an early stage, when he realised the net was closing and he likely faced arrest, he simply ran away, seeking to disappear and start a new life abroad.

‘He’s remained on a ticking clock ever since – it was only a matter of time before he faced the music.’

Prosecutor Stephen Shay said: ‘The prosecution case is that at all material times Mr Ransome was the leader of an organised criminal group.

‘Russell Dendle was his right-hand man, in other words his second in command.’

Mr Shay told the court Ransome also continued to direct two couriers, Kieran Grant and Tye Cook, until their arrests in March and May 2022.

Dendle was jailed for 12 years in 2022, while Grant and Cook, along with fellow conspirators Charlie Lancaster and Jane Cook have all also been handed significant prison sentences.

Essex Police seized more than £1 million in cash, just under 50kg of cocaine, worth £1.8 million wholesale and 20 firearms over the course of the investigation.

It came about after detectives secures prison sentences totalling 85 years for a gang supplying class-A drugs and guns cross the county.

Their main supplier, 36-year-old David Glover, was in turn supplied by Ransome.

Ransome fled abroad as his associates began to be rounded up, moving first to Spain and then on to Thailand.

Defending, Jonathan Green told the court today that the fugitive spent 311 days awaiting extradition at the ‘one of the most infamous prisons in the world’ – Central Bangkok Prison.

‘That is popularly known as the Bangkok Hilton, for ironic reasons because the conditions are so awful,’ he said.

‘He is a changed man, a man who experiences and expresses genuine remorse.

‘He has put behind him the lifestyle that led to the commission of these offences.’

Mr Green told the judge Ransome ‘suffered complete bodily paralysis’ as a result of taking nitrous oxide and ‘had to learn to walk again’.

The ‘absolutely terrifying experience’ brought about ‘a complete change of attitude’, the barrister added.

‘He has not been the same man since,’ Mr Green said.

‘The man who falls to be sentenced today is not the same man who committed these offences three years ago.’

Daniel Newell, National Crime Agency (NCA) Regional Manager for Thailand said: ‘Ben Ransome ran a highly sophisticated operation with no regard for the lives he devastated through his crimes.

‘He believed he could evade justice by fleeing the country, underestimating the reach of the NCA and international partners to track down fugitives.

‘Through the joint efforts of the NCA, the Royal Thai Police – specifically the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and the Attorney General’s Office – and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we located and extradited Ransome back to the UK to face justice.’

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