Drug dealer busted after singing ‘Dirty Cash’ while counting profits

A drug dealer who was caught on his own CCTV singing about ‘dirty cash’ while handling illicit money has been jailed.

Bertie Payne, 30, coordinated the supply of class A drugs across East Kent and used a luxury watch business as a cover-up, a court heard.

He led a group of seven men to supply and distribute 24kg of cocaine, 10kg of ketamine and more than 5,000 ecstasy tablets across the region between August 2024 and January 2025.

While investigating, police found footage of Payne counting cash while singing the lyrics to Dirty Cash, by The Adventures of Stevie V.

Payne, of Birchington-on-Sea, was arrested in a car park at the Bluewater shopping complex in January last year as he was about to hand Halim Lashi £50,000 in cash.

Both men were wearing luxury watches and had more watches inside their vehicles.

They were each arrested on suspicion of money laundering offences, and police began collating evidence.

Payne was jailed for 15 years at Maidstone Crown Court, with Kent Police retorting that dealing in dirty cash ‘doesn’t pay’.

The court heard analysis of Payne’s phone led police to identify others involved in the supply and distribution of drugs and cash.

More than 2,100 text messages were found to have been sent by Payne and ‘PBoss’ – later identified as 51-year-old Peter Nicholls – who officers arrested in April last year.

Police found that Nicholls was Payne’s right-hand man and that he worked with several others to move class A and B drugs all around East Kent.

Laishi, Payne and Nicholls also had dealings with moving the illicit money, which included the use of cryptocurrency.

Nicholls, of Ramsgate in Kent, was also found to have used the home address of Karen Gordon to store some of the drugs before they were moved on.

Following their comprehensive investigation, officers additionally arrested Massimo Fierro, Harry Hathaway, Mitchell Laing, Reece Stovell and Klein Taylor.

Along with Payne and Nicholls, they were all charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine. Each admitted their charges except for Lashi, who denied money laundering but was later convicted of the offence at a trial last October.

Payne, Nicholls, Gordon and Lashi were sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court earlier this month. Payne was handed a 15-year sentence, whilst right-hand man Nicholls was given eight.

Lashi, 31, of Croydon in South London, was given a two-year suspended sentence, while Karen Gordon, 52, of Ramsgate, was jailed for four years and three months.

Investigating Officer Detective Constable Martin Lacey said: ‘Payne went to great lengths to conceal his criminality by not only running the money through what appeared to be a legitimate business, but he also recruited others to handle the drugs in an effort to distance himself from the criminality.

‘This was a large-scale operation which saw over £800,000 of drugs being distributed and supplied throughout East Kent. Many vulnerable drug users were targeted, which not only affects their lives but also that of their families, and blights local communities.

‘Payne thought his operation was sophisticated and that he wouldn’t get found out. But, his sentencing shows that crime doesn’t pay and that if you are involved in criminality, you will be caught and you will face the consequences.’

Reece Stovell, 29, of Westgate-on-Sea in Kent, was jailed for six years, 32-year-old Harry Hathaway, of Broadstairs in Kent, for five years and three months, and Klein Taylor, 29, of Ramsgate, for three years and four months.

Mitchell Laing, 28, of Thanet in Kent, was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail, whilst Massimo Fierro, 28, of Birchington, was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail.

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