The Law Today The Drug Files

  An operation targeting violent criminals linked to the supply of firearms and drugs resulted in 12 arrests on the morning of Wednesday, 14 April. The suspects, aged between 17 and 27, were identified following almost 18 months of investigation by the Met’s North West Basic Command Unit. Police also seized class A and B drugs, cash, drug distribution equipment and multiple mobile phones believed to have been used to organise illegal transactions from the addresses in Brent. Eleven men and one woman were arrested for a number of different violence and drug related offences, including being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.   The arrests form part of an investigation launched in 2019 initially designed to address local youth violence issues in northwest London. Detectives quickly uncovered the significant drivers behind the violence and acquisitive crime in the area - specifically the supply of Class A and B drugs. After gathering intelligence to identify the most dange...

  Officers investigating the exploitation of young and vulnerable individuals into county lines activity have carried out a series of early morning warrants on Tuesday, 20 April and arrested five people. A total of eight addresses were targeted simultaneously across London, Hampshire and Berkshire. Three men and two women, aged between 20 and 40 years old, have been arrested on suspicion of offences including conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and modern slavery. Searches of the addresses continue but officers have so far found a machete, Class B drugs and a rapier sword. The investigation was launched in January this year after officers identified a ring of people involved in widespread drug supply across the southeast of England through county lines. The early stages of the investigation led officers to believe young children and extremely vulnerable adults were being used to deal drugs along the county lines. They secured evidence to suggest these individuals were being held aga...

  A locksmith has been jailed after officers recovered £1.5million worth of Class A drugs that were concealed in an elaborate hide. Alex Guest, 40 (01.03.81) of Boleyn Way, Ilford, was sentenced to 11 years and three months’ imprisonment at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Tuesday, 30 March. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A drugs (cocaine) and possession of criminal property at the same court on 30 June 2020. On Monday, 20 April 2020 at about 19:20hrs officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, supported by officers from the ANPR Interceptor Units, stopped a van on the M11 southbound, near the junction with the A406, in Redbridge, as part of an intelligence-led operation targeting the supply of Class A drugs. Officers searched the van and found an elaborate hide. The hidden compartment was concealed within a partition wall of the van and was operated by hydraulic arms, behind locksmith cutting equipment, to disguise its presence. Within the hide, office...

  Six people have been jailed after a specialist Met team shut down a sophisticated network of Brazilian criminals who couriered and supplied drugs across London. During the operation, detectives recovered what is believed to be the largest quantity of GBL seized by police in the United Kingdom. More than 2,000 litres of the drug were recovered, with an estimated value of £2.2 million. Four of the Organised Crime Network (OCN) - who were making millions of pounds from the enterprise - were sentenced on Wednesday, 24 and Thursday, 25 March at Inner London Crown Court. The following were found guilty of 14 counts of conspiracy to supply or offer to supply Class, A, B and C drugs on 20 March 2019, after an eight-week trial at the same court. They had been remanded in custody pending sentencing: - Henrique Bernardo Medina Salles, 27 (04.06.93), of Starboard Way, Silvertown, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. - Sullen Miguez, 36 (26.12.84), of Abbotswood Drive, St Georges ...

  A man was jailed for seven years at Inner London Crown Court after a loaded handgun was seized by officers executing a firearms warrant. Leonard Paynter, 30 (08.04.90) of Stanthorpe Road, Streatham, was sentenced on Wednesday, 17 March after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm, two counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs (heroin and cocaine) and possession with intent to supply Class B drugs (cannabis). On Wednesday, 29 January 2020 officers from Viper, part of the Met’s Specialist Crime, executed a warrant issued under Section 46 Firearms Act 1968, at a bedsit in Stanthorpe Road, Streatham. Paynter was found inside and was arrested. A quantity of heroin and cocaine was seized, as well as several phones. Car keys were also found inside the bedsit which were linked to a car parked nearby. Officers searched the car and found a loaded handgun underneath the driver’s seat. Investigations later revealed the handgun was a copy of a .32 calibre Bel...

  Approximately £150,000 cash, 20kgs of Class A and B drugs and a suspected firearm have been seized as part of a multi-police force operation that has been months in the making. The drugs recovered were heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and cannabis. The suspected handgun was recovered at an address in Foxley Close, E8. The warrants were executed in London, all the way across to Bristol, down to Plymouth and stretching up to Aberdeen in northeast Scotland. Officers from the Met, Kent Police, Essex Police, Avon and Somerset Police, Devon and Cornwall Police and Police Scotland executed 29 warrants on the morning of Wednesday, 24 March to arrest individuals involved in the sale and distribution of Class A and B drugs. 20 of the addresses where the warrants were executed are within London. 16 people, aged between 25 and 43, were arrested and taken into custody. The arrests were on suspicion of conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs; one of those detained has also been arrested on susp...

A man has been arrested in north London as part of the Met’s commitment to tackling organised crime. The 27-year-old man was arrested on the morning of Thursday, 25 March, at his address in Islington following an investigation into an organised crime group, who are believed to be involved in conspiracy to import heroin and cocaine into the UK.   The warrants - as part of Operation Eternal - were carried out by officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command and Taskforce officers who are investigating criminal activity being carried out on encrypted devices. The man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs between March and April 2020. Intelligence obtained by officers revealed he was linked to an Organised Criminal Network who are believed to be importing both cocaine and heroin into the UK and supplying them throughout London and the Home Counties. Detective Chief Inspector Driss Hayoukane, from the Specialist Crime Command, said:   “Operation Eterna...