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Andrew Pritchard was arrested for smuggling $130 million dollars worth of cocaine through the Caribbean to Europe using shipping containers in the 1990s and 2000s.
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00:00My name is Andrew Pritchard. I was arrested for smuggling $130 million worth of cocaine from the Caribbean to Europe,
00:08and this is how crime works.
00:12It was becoming an everyday occurrence that business associates were getting killed.
00:17There have been loads of occasions when you've actually walked into a situation and in the back of your head
00:23you're thinking, I might not leave this room.
00:25A person who's addicted to drugs is addicted to the drugs. A smuggler is addicted to the lifestyle, and it's
00:32almost like a poison in your blood.
00:39Music played a massive part in my life. From around 1983 was when I entered into the sound system culture
00:46and I was asked to play at the parties, produce my sound system there.
00:50I was playing my own gigs and becoming quite established. It brought a lot of attention from a lot of
00:55people, understanding I was still a very young man at this time, 22 years old, making fast amounts of money,
01:01entertaining, you know, thousands and thousands of people every single weekend.
01:05The drug economy was becoming massive. Of course, ecstasy. You had a whole network of people that sold and distributed
01:13those drugs.
01:14So I saw an opportunity because I realised by utilising people I had who were actually bringing in legitimate cargo
01:21and legitimate goods, which were coming in every day, mainly perishable goods for quick clearance, and started bringing ecstasy tablets
01:27in that way.
01:28Because of the easy availability from Holland, where the pills were coming in from, and the size of the parties
01:34upscaling, it quickly became a multi-million pound business.
01:38So in 1992, I landed in Jamaica.
01:41My mum came from Jamaica in 1951, and I was one of the first mixed race generation post-Win Rush
01:48kids.
01:49Geographically, Jamaica is the most well-positioned island in the Caribbean Sea for smuggling.
01:55One period in the early 90s, they estimated over 10% of all the cocaine produced in Colombia was trans
02:04-shipped through Jamaica.
02:06I realised I had access to customs officers, and I had access to products.
02:11By the turn of millennium, thanks to a great connection with the Eastern Caribbean cartel, I moved on to cocaine.
02:17A member of my extended family, Bible, I suppose, was my mentor, who'd returned to Jamaica, and basically they had
02:25been a smuggler, but had retired, but was at that time involved in the dollar exchange business, which basically, US
02:33dollars, of course, were in great demand in Jamaica.
02:36Because of his contacts in the drug trade meant that people would come to him in order for him to
02:42exchange their US dollars, Canadian dollars, and pound sterling back into Jamaican dollars.
02:48So he was a bridge between the underworld and the business people in Jamaica.
02:54Bible let me understand how that business used to work.
02:58Years ago, he used to bring, literally, tons of Colombian gold marijuana from Colombia into the States, because there was
03:08a huge demand for it.
03:09During the 70s, cocaine started to find its way in play.
03:14And the people who were involved in the weed smuggling business started to turn more to cocaine.
03:20Bible chose not to get involved in the slightest way, and everything is done on introduction.
03:25I remember a few of the sayings he said, and there was one particular one, it was, never trust the
03:29three T's.
03:30The three T's were, never talk on the telephone, because obviously the DEA have unlimited access to tapping phone calls.
03:38Never send a text, because all messages and interception is basically, you know, covered.
03:44And never tell a woman, because what sometimes you can tell someone, in the spur of the moment, can end
03:51up actually getting you in a life sentence.
03:59But the name which I should say I was part of was the Eastern Caribbean Cartel.
04:05And the Eastern Caribbean Cartel sits in a cluster of the Caribbean islands and the coast of South America.
04:11Cocaine, you either purchase it from as close to source as possible, in which case, you know, it comes in
04:19from one of the islands.
04:21Or you buy it from corrupt narcos police, who are supposed to incinerate it.
04:28But labs generally aren't all mega labs.
04:32They're smaller labs, OK, that produce a certain amount, 100 a week, 50 a week.
04:36It's not as it's made out to be in films like Scarface.
04:40What happens is, if you wanted a consignment, say you wanted half a ton, 500 kilos, it would come together
04:46from three, four people.
04:48And those people basically wouldn't even have to go to Colombia.
04:52You could purchase straight from Colombia.
04:54But obviously you are involved in the process of having to pay FARC, who makes sure it gets safely down
04:59the waterways.
05:00You know, you've got a whole process of crossing it across again, over the border, from Venezuela to the jump
05:05off point.
05:06Back then, you could buy what they call paste, which is in Colombia, it's the rawest form of cocaine, approximately
05:12$600 a kilo.
05:14And then from the case, it goes through a process of different chemicals.
05:17And then you get it where ether is applied to the raw product.
05:21And you're probably getting cocaine back then for around $900 a kilo.
05:26And then obviously you pay for the transportation as it crosses various borders.
05:31I would never, ever cross to Colombia because instantly you're blown up with the DEA, you know, watch list.
05:39So I would travel to Guyana, I would travel to Venezuela.
05:44Reluctantly, where I would tend to go would be Tobago because Tobago obviously sits right beside those islands,
05:50but it potentially wasn't on the DEA watch list as much as the others two were.
05:55So they're red flag countries, you know, even though Trinidad now is one of the most red flag countries there
06:01is.
06:06So most of the shipments either come by vessel or they come by plane.
06:14So generally speaking, ships take between 12 and 14 days.
06:19To Holland or wherever you want to go to in Europe, depends on what rate of fuel they burn.
06:24It'll come in what you call dry containers or refrigerated containers.
06:28One thing people fail to realise is that the easiest way to smuggle drugs or any form of contraband
06:35is simply by running along the same side as a route that runs every single day,
06:41which is a normal, you know, produce or product.
06:45Perishable goods, fruit and veg are a key product to import.
06:50If they're left too long hanging around, they're going to go rotten.
06:53So these goods are usually cleared very, very quickly.
06:56In UK customs, we have a series of what they call routes.
07:01So for an example, there's route one, which is all documentation to be checked and that could maybe take 24
07:08hours for cargo to be cleared.
07:10You've got route two, which is a physical inspection, which means all the goods have to be unpacked.
07:15But with companies that have been running for a long period of time, they fall under something called route six,
07:21which is instant clearance.
07:22So unless someone phones up the cops and says there's definitely drugs on there, that shipment will literally be cleared
07:31straight through customs, no questions asked.
07:34For a great number of years, Spitalfields and Covent Garden Market imported fruit and veg from virtually every producing country
07:44in the world.
07:44You know, making contact with them, as long as I could guarantee that when products were coming in for the
07:51people who they worked for, I could definitely get it off at this end without the actual owner of the
07:56company being any the wiser.
07:58So that was a system we started to use.
08:00I remember there was a very popular hot sauce brand and they used to come in boxes like that of
08:06usually 12 or 24 crated and then they would go into brand cardboard boxes.
08:11But we had a wholesaler in Holland with weed who literally used to take 20 foot containers full of them.
08:18And of course we had syrup and ironically we had a really bad turnout one day because we had a
08:24container loaded.
08:25It was about, I think it was close to maybe four and a half metric tons of weed in it
08:29and it never rains in Jamaica.
08:31On this particular day when the container was being moved to be shipped, it rained and it rained really, really
08:36heavily.
08:37And one of the guys who was working on the docks decided he was going to pick up that container
08:42and move it.
08:43Put his foot down, broke into a skid.
08:46Of course the container was up there on this raft.
08:49It then fell and it was like the gates of hell.
08:51As it hit the unforgiving concrete floor, all dropped out was tons upon tons of these packages of weed.
09:00It looked like a sea of blood basically, the red syrup in with the rain.
09:04It literally looked like a horror film.
09:06The cocaine, the reason why it gets through is because there aren't enough customs officers or border force in the
09:12world to check every single piece of cargo.
09:14I remember years ago we used to build force walls at the back of the containers.
09:19You know, a foot and a half from the back wall, we'd build this force wall, we'd get some pot
09:24rivets, we'd put them in vinegar to make them go rusty and we'd basically put them back in and fill
09:31the back of the container with weed or cocaine, whatever was necessarily needed.
09:36It meant that by the time to get in there they'd have to obviously unload all the cargo from it.
09:42But of course then came the measurable pen where they could just stick it in there and go bang, that's
09:4820 foot, you're missing two foot at the back of that wall.
09:51That was a very simple, you know, frame of technology that changed it.
09:55And then of course the refrigerator container, you realise there's a fridge at the back of it.
09:59And when you remove that and look inside the fridge, it's like a huge circle, a hole that gets filled
10:04with product.
10:05There's been occasion where sometimes things go wrong.
10:08I remember one incident where someone had done plant hands, you know, and what had happened was the plant hands
10:15had come through and a woman, she went and bought a box.
10:19She went to the back of her car and was feeling them and they were tough.
10:22She went back to the storeholder and she's gone, these are rubbish, I want my money back.
10:27And he said, what are you talking about?
10:28And he's feeling it and he's hit it against the desk and it's just covered in white powder.
10:34Like a snowman, right?
10:36It's like, you know, full of cocaine.
10:39A week later, a guy, he's turned up, he's got a brand spanking new Mercedes van.
10:46And they're like, what?
10:48And he's saying like he wants to buy like a pallet, right?
10:51And it's like he buys like two boxes at a time.
10:54So obviously what happened was he's bought a few boxes full of cocaine and he's hit the jackpot.
10:59And he's thinking, I'm going to keep doing it.
11:02And that used to happen a lot.
11:03So people randomly would end up buying their produce for their shop, going back to their business and then lifting
11:11a limb.
11:12It's full of drugs.
11:18Moving into the world of serious organised crime is when you then move into actually paying the people who are
11:25supposed to be policing this stuff, which are the customs and border force.
11:28So from country of origin in Jamaica, you would have to pay, obviously, the customs in that country.
11:38OK, save $400,000 for a container full of cocaine to leave that country of origin.
11:45And that would entail paying the broker who would do the paperwork, the customs officers who would be handling the
11:52clearance of the container.
11:54He would maybe involve the dog handler and those would be your team abroad.
11:59Shipping full stop is international business.
12:03However, every container that leaves, the first thing it does from its country of origin is allocated a number.
12:10So if they're given that number, they can put an instant flag on it because it's going to be inspected
12:14here.
12:14When they then put it for inspection, it means they're going to x-ray it.
12:19Now, a human can override it by their way to go for x-ray.
12:23And then the route goes from them to the x-ray team.
12:28X-ray team, again, they're paid and they're brought into the system.
12:32They then do their paper clearance to say it's been x-rayed, which allows a release to go on the
12:37container.
12:38He then sends the transport company to collect the container.
12:41The container's then delivered and then driven during the night usually, because obviously the time that the market opens, if
12:47it's in the market, down to the market.
12:50And when it's taken to the market, then it's broken down and taken where it has to be taken to,
12:55a safe house or a slaughter as we call it.
12:57And then during the process of time, it's distributed.
13:05The thing about drugs, particularly cocaine, the UK, it's a massive marketplace.
13:13And when you import it in volumes, you'd never really come in contact with the people who are actually on
13:21the street or on the front line.
13:23So a shipment of half a tonne would probably go to three people and, you know, that would be broken
13:28up in 200 keys, 200 keys and 200 keys.
13:31Then they would then distribute it and break it down to make 30 keys or 50 keys.
13:35Then those 50 keys goes down to five keys and those five keys then go down to single keys.
13:40And those single keys go down to, you know, four nine bars.
13:43And then four nine ounce bars then go down to ounces.
13:46And those ounces then go down to single ounces.
13:49Those ounces then turn into grams.
13:51But the system with narco economy runs in different ways and different spaces.
13:56One of the spaces is the social dealer.
13:58And I feel very responsible for the birth of the social dealer.
14:03It started with ecstasy.
14:05During that period, the second summer of love, people thought it was acceptable to go and get a few pills
14:10for their friends.
14:11They'll start getting 100 pills, sell them in a week and then suddenly they lose their jobs.
14:15Suddenly they're paying their car payments and their mortgage or their rent with the money from drugs.
14:20Then they're a class A drugs dealer.
14:22And that was the birth of the social drug dealer, which then turned into cocaine.
14:32Getting money back and forth was always, you know, something which is the lifeblood of the business.
14:37Things are different now because people use cryptocurrency.
14:39But back then it was always cash.
14:41And the methods usually used were pretty much, you know, seen in plain sight.
14:48One of them I used to use all the time.
14:50We had a guy who had a very large business basically used to import lorries.
14:53We used to firstly buy lorries for him here.
14:57In which case we'd put them on the ship and then he'd pay for the vehicle when it got to
15:01the end.
15:02We'd pay our people but also we used to actually open parts of the vehicle, load it with money basically
15:09and then weld it back.
15:10When that money got back to the island, Jamaica, it sold on the black market.
15:15So basically money, the more you make the bigger things you find to invest in.
15:20So when you start this kind of business, what you find yourself is the glitzy stuff we call it, okay,
15:27the shiny stuff.
15:28It's about the jewellery, it's about the watches, it's about the cars.
15:31It's about stuff you wanted to say you've got a status.
15:34But then when you move from there, you kind of go up that ladder a little bit and you think
15:38you suddenly want to start to invest.
15:41You look for restaurants, you look for things that you think are quite glamorous, nightclubs.
15:44And these things are like bottomless pits, they hemorrhage money if you're not on top of them.
15:50However, the reality is this, when it all goes wrong, everything goes because it's all traceable.
15:58I had lots of different investments.
15:59I invested across real estate, I invested across property developments and I wasted a lot of money on, you know,
16:07opportunities or business investments.
16:09You know, couldn't even sustain themselves.
16:15The drug business full stop became more and more and more violent, particularly cocaine.
16:21People I've done business with, I've seen, you know, being killed in the most horrendous ways.
16:27Barb had introduced me to a guy called Blacker Dooch and Blacker was what they call a don for an
16:33area in downtown Kingston.
16:35He had leverage at the docks, at the airports.
16:37He was assassinated, him and two other guys, you know, in broad daylight.
16:41Two, three guys drove down into a constituency, which was controlled by another guy who was described as a don,
16:50Willie Huggett.
16:51They were there in a corner, car drove up, which they thought was a plainclothes police,
16:55because plainclothes police in Jamaica wear white shirts and generally drive Toyota Corolla vehicles.
17:00And they literally just got out with AK-47s and shot all three of them to pieces.
17:04Another guy I used to work with, he was shot in the head, put into the back of a, you
17:09know, burning car.
17:10Another guy I knew, a guy walked into a restaurant where he was, the top of people, in a crash
17:16helmet and started firing.
17:18He got a bullet in the neck.
17:19You know, these were just a few incidents.
17:21When you're in this business, you're in it, and you can't see the wood beyond the trees.
17:26So what comes with it is all this stuff.
17:29A lot of people who are involved in the smuggling business in Jamaica didn't want to get involved in the
17:35cocaine industry
17:36because they saw firsthand what it'd done to people.
17:40However, there were people who had no consideration for it, and that introduced a ruthless element.
17:47And with it came bloodshed.
17:49And when you talk about people, you know, who are dangerous guys, there's a saying in Jamaica,
17:54there's guys in Jamaica that could scare paint off a building.
17:57So there's people out there that don't fear anyone or anything, you know,
18:02and they couldn't count how many people they've killed because one famous saying was, you know,
18:06if you've got an Uzi and you're firing down an alleyway, you're not counting.
18:16Purity differs because things change.
18:20And even from the lab, sometimes it isn't pure, and people get it from now.
18:25And around Peru and these regions sometimes, better quality is coming from now.
18:29It's really strange because I've never sold a product I haven't taken.
18:34Hence, I've never sold heroin.
18:36I've taken cocaine.
18:37I've taken ecstasy.
18:38I've smoked marijuana.
18:40But one ironic thing is when I've actually been involved in smuggling them, I haven't wanted to use them.
18:46Quality is the most important thing, like anything with drugs.
18:48If you buy something cheap, it's not going to last and it's difficult to sell.
18:53My strategy that I took on board was stack them high and sell them cheap.
18:58So I'd buy the best, but buy lots of it and sell it cheap.
19:02People talk about, you know, pink Peruvian champagne and all these other stuff.
19:08What people fail to realise is the reason why these forms of cocaine are pink or an off colour
19:15is because they're unable to get the chemicals.
19:17They'll use substitute chemicals for it.
19:19You know, the easiest way of selling good cocaine is oil.
19:23So you just put it in your thumbs and let it dissolve if it's good.
19:26You know, you should be able to, the sight and smell should straight away let you know the quality.
19:36I used various methods of transport for smuggling.
19:39A lot in the early days was done by plane, baggage handers, things like that.
19:43Of course, you could always do big consignments in the cargo areas.
19:47However, most of the big stuff was really done by containers because these were hugely profitable.
19:52If it's coming through the airport, it's coming in smaller quantities.
19:55However, you've still got to pay a series of people.
19:58You have to have a check-in assistant who's going to be able to log it on now.
20:01You have to obviously have the dog handler who's going to obviously let that go through.
20:05And then depending where you're then going on from that point, if it's going to be an x-ray and
20:10they turn a blind eye to the x-ray, they've got to be paid.
20:12Me and my business partner were out in Jamaica and we stayed at the Wyndham Hotel.
20:16But during that period of time, the English cricket team were actually touring the West Indies to play.
20:22They were there sitting by the pool with us and we were watching every single day these big flight cases
20:29with the cricket bats coming in and out.
20:32And we were sitting there thinking, those flight cases are not going to be checked.
20:37So what we'd done is we'd teed it up with one of the guys who was at the hotel that
20:43we'd be able to access those flight cases and pack them with cocaine.
20:48The only problem we then had was Jamaica wasn't the last test.
20:55So not being one to give up easily, I thought there's got to be another system.
21:00And one of the guys that came out there to meet us, he happened to mention that there are certain
21:05things that couldn't be x-rayed.
21:06And one of them was computer screens.
21:08And we thought, hold on, if they can't be x-rayed, you can probably put anything in them you want.
21:14And of course, what we had was really good contact in Venezuela, who actually was involved in computer parts.
21:21And over a period of six months, we just gradually became a steady importer of computer screens for Venezuela.
21:28Of course, this helped us consider it with cash flow for events and all the other stuff we were doing.
21:34Within the computer screens, we had created a balloon, which was packed with cocaine.
21:39Some of the ones we'd used over the years were suitcases and one in particular one was the body, which
21:46we called the stiff.
21:47I noticed that someone had actually tried to send a body with a coffin full with drugs in it, but
21:55they fell because it was randomly opened at the airport.
21:58Of course, that problem wasn't going to have because we had our people who worked at the airport.
22:04In Jamaica, it was quite easy to get access to people, like, you know, who knows someone.
22:08So getting a doctor was real simple.
22:11The biggest thing was obviously being able to get the authorisation to ship a body.
22:15So, for example, you knew a guy who was a drug addict or who was an alcoholic, he'd sell you
22:20his passport for 500 quid.
22:21So the picture just could be simply cut, lifted, put whatever picture you want in it, and went into the
22:28Jamaican High Commission to tell him he'd died.
22:30The doctor we had, we paid him a few hundred dollars.
22:33He issued a death certificate, of course, you know, no sight of body, no body existed.
22:39Took the death certificate up to the High Commission with the passport and subsequently got access to ship the body
22:45over.
22:45And, of course, once we had the ship arrangements put in place, we had local undertakers who reverently retrieved the
22:54body from the aeroplane.
22:56And that was one incident.
23:02I had a great love for Afro-Caribbean music, dominantly reggae and soul, and I set up a sound system
23:09with a couple of friends from my road.
23:11What was the turning point? It was the winter of 1988. We came across a huge warehouse, paid the guy,
23:18would have been the equivalent of maybe US$800 at night for the bed venue, and started to stage parties.
23:25By New Year's Eve, the events were being flooded by celebrities, people like Boy George, Mini Vanilli, top-ranking artists
23:34were turning up to party and enjoy themselves.
23:37And that was a massive launch pad for a company I'd put together called Genesis.
23:43When you're putting on parties of that scale, you tend to meet a lot of people, and you seem to
23:49climb a pecking order in Britain's underworld.
23:52Nightlife and gangsters go together.
23:55When the parties seem to be coming to an end under pressure from police raids, the drug economy was becoming
24:01massive.
24:02Ecstasy was a drug which, in Holland, it was legal until 1988.
24:06It was illegal here earlier, under the Misuse of Drug Act, but people were still relatively flexible about the drug.
24:14In Britain, tablets were set up to £25, you know, a single pill, and they could be wholesale for up
24:19to £20, and that time they were being bought in Holland for around about £12 or £13.
24:24But as demand came more and more and more and more people took them, the price started to drop, eventually
24:31I could buy pills in Holland for £3 a tablet, and I could get them here and actually wholesale them
24:38anywhere between £6 and £8 a tablet by the £1,000.
24:41So there were huge profit margins, and every £10,000, you're making £3,000, or £50,000.
24:49Things were, you know, going like clockwork, but like all the best laid plans, eventually something could go wrong.
24:56One morning I received a phone call, someone said to me, you know, there's a serious incident at what I
25:03call a safe house.
25:04They said, basically, the police were all over it.
25:06So in January 1992, via a false passport, I was on the run, and I landed in Jamaica.
25:18The idea of going to Jamaica was for me to keep low.
25:22Unfortunately, I didn't know what the word low profile meant.
25:25I was introduced to a circuit of people of quite high society Jamaican, and I met a young lady whose
25:32father was a prominent Jamaican politician.
25:35She fell pregnant, and during this time, while I was seeing her and she fell pregnant, I also met another
25:43young lady who instantly took my breath away, Miss Jamaica Weld.
25:48I also ended up having a child with her, which I have two beautiful sons as a result of.
25:54But of course, I put myself from a low profile character into the front page of Jamaican news.
26:01So imagine it, I'm 25 years old, and I'm trying my hardest to go straight.
26:07Me being me, the marriage fell apart, and, you know, I found myself on a road to chaos.
26:13I got myself into a fight, ended up in a Jamaican prison, and as luck would have it, have family
26:21that could help influence situations, and manage to bribe my way out of there.
26:25Around about 1997, I finally put the dots together.
26:31I was around my friends again, people I'd grown up with.
26:35A lot of those guys had now climbed a criminal ladder.
26:38Naturally, Jamaica was a producing country where cannabis grows.
26:43So Bible, my mentor, he had an amazing list of contacts, and they trusted him because he was a very
26:51superior figure.
26:53He was able to at least give me the protection that I needed.
26:57Bible introduced me to a guy called Blackadooch.
26:59He showed me how the mechanics worked of the business.
27:04You know, we'd take drives down to the country, which would be like St. Elizabeth, where weed is grown, and
27:10farmers then would come with their harvest of weed.
27:14The stuff would be taken, it would be bagged, it would be obviously weighed, and then paid for.
27:20Then makeshift camps would be set up at in what we called a bush.
27:24So we used to be out there, and people basically would set up two pieces of railroad track, which would
27:30create a press in the middle of it.
27:32Special metal plates were made, and big tarpollins were put on the floor.
27:37Women would take sharp little knives, manicure the weed, taking out the seeds, separating the seeds from the buds.
27:42They were all then put into these presses, these blocks, and then compressed down.
27:48Then they were wrapped with various sheets of, you know, cellophane, and then we put what we call dog repellent
27:55on them,
27:56which was made of leaves of different trees, and then the weed was then transported down into central Kingston, where
28:03it would be leaving from.
28:04It was a very, very profitable business.
28:07So on average, you could purchase the best marijuana for around $70 a kilo.
28:14Once it gets back to England, the same weed would fetch anywhere up to $3,000 a pound.
28:21So the profit margins were huge, even larger, if you look on the scale of it, than cocaine.
28:28Getting the product in consignments down from the country into central Kingston, where it's going to ship from,
28:35that would usually be done on a cane rafter.
28:38Police did stop it randomly.
28:39They're certainly not going to unload the sugar cane.
28:42Sometimes we have ambulances, so we'd obviously pay an ambulance driver, and he would basically put it on.
28:48He'd basically blue light it all the way down.
28:50Even police were used to drive it down.
28:52You know, it was a very smuggler-friendly place when I lived there.
29:02One thing about making money is great, but doing something that you are passionate about doing was really important to
29:09me.
29:10And having grown up in a sound system culture, when I'd done warehouse parties,
29:14but one thing I hadn't done, I hadn't done major concerts or festivals.
29:18And the jewel in the crown, for any reggae enthusiast, was reggae sunsplash.
29:24That I just might be able to achieve bringing it back to the UK.
29:28So in 1999, we put on one of the most amazing events ever seen.
29:34But again, unfortunately, being the person I am, and the business we were running, had a lot of attention drawn
29:41to it.
29:42In particular, people who were coming to visit us at the office.
29:44And I guess some of these people were on the police radar.
29:47There was one particular individual who was having stolen cars, taking apart and exporting them.
29:53And he used to have some beautiful cars he'd bring by to the office on occasion.
29:57And ironically, Worklist Jean was headlining the reggae sunsplash event.
30:02And we had one of our drivers driving him around in the vehicle when he was here.
30:07Which, of course, unbeknown to us, was a stolen car.
30:10One morning, the serious crime squad decided to crash my house when I was in bed.
30:16They arrived and subsequently, they discovered that vehicle on the drive.
30:22They also discovered a number of different documents, basically, related to stolen cars.
30:30And they also discovered a small quantity of drugs.
30:33I was arrested and, obviously, I was back to square one again.
30:37But as luck would have it, I'd realised they'd actually released me from bail when they hadn't charged me.
30:45By the beginning of November that year, I'm back in Jamaica.
30:48I plunged myself deeply into the world of smuggling.
30:53So, as much as I have passions for other things, every single time I'd done them to levels of success,
31:00smuggling would always represent itself back into my life and basically destroy whatever positive attributes I'd started.
31:13So, it's 2004.
31:16I had a contact who I worked with in the underworld.
31:19And he came to me and said that he had access to a team of officers who were clearing containers.
31:27And, at first, obviously, I was very sort of, you know, that doesn't seem right.
31:31How did you get a whole team?
31:33It did seem like a bit too good to be true.
31:35And what had happened was a guy who had a former military background, special units,
31:41people who were trained in, you know, high levels, SS, people like that,
31:45were sometimes given jobs with the police to do surveillance.
31:48This individual would actually have been offered a job with what they call a ghost unit in customs and excise.
31:54And the job he was entailed to do was actually look out for corrupt customs officers.
31:59Rather than collecting the evidence, obviously, and taking it to his superiors,
32:05he approached them directly and said to the officers who he had information on,
32:11I've got this on you, and this is the deal.
32:14This either goes to the superior, and you're going to probably end up in jail or face charges or be
32:19sacked,
32:21or, if you want, I can show you how to work and you work with me.
32:25By getting access to these officers who he was investigating,
32:29he had, obviously, access now to us, which was an organised crime group.
32:33So, he facilitated himself as the overall fixer.
32:37So, what would happen is, he'd charge a million pounds a container.
32:42That was a flat rate, regardless of what was in the container.
32:45He'd give us specific instructions of what we'd have to do.
32:49We want X amount of money up front, which was only a small holding deposit,
32:53£100,000, and then after that, all the balance must be paid
32:57within 48 hours of receiving a container.
33:00Now, a million pounds or 1.5 million US dollars
33:05could have seemed like quite a lot of money to some people,
33:08but when you're talking about bringing in drugs,
33:12you're talking about tiny money.
33:14It's pittance.
33:15We started to organise something.
33:17We put on, you know, I think it was like 500 kilos of cocaine
33:21on the first shipment, and bang, cleared it.
33:25Came straight through.
33:26Not an issue.
33:27And it was like, it's real.
33:30It works.
33:31Give us the container number as soon as it leaves the country of origin.
33:37So, we had a code we created, which was numbers and letters,
33:40which were sort of done in reverse.
33:42And then once the container then was ready for release,
33:45we had to go in normal procedure with paperwork,
33:48and he'd then contact our guy,
33:50and our guy would say, it's ready to collect.
33:53So, now we'd discovered and had access to the best thing in the world,
33:57you were given an opportunity to ship what you want
34:01in any quantity you want, you know, clean as a whistle.
34:05And one of the team I worked with, an associate,
34:10at this point I said, listen, we stop everything,
34:13we just specifically do this.
34:15But what happened was, he actually was putting himself around
34:20and offering services to a lot of other people.
34:23Now, understand, in the eastern of London and Essex,
34:26and Kent as well, you've got a lot of groups of people
34:29who are prolific smugglers, who are also working through the market.
34:33He'd actually been working with a team,
34:35and they were bringing in pineapples.
34:37But in disguise, so they'd been hollowing out the pineapples,
34:41putting cocaine in there, sealing them with wax,
34:44putting them back, and basically sending them over.
34:47But the police were actually looking at this group of people.
34:52So, one of my associates that work at the market,
34:55he was under surveillance,
34:57because he'd be working with his team from Essex,
34:59so their mobile phones were all being tapped,
35:02they were on regular surveillance.
35:03In December 2004, a container carrying 584 kilograms of cocaine,
35:09constilled in Saks' coconuts, arrived at Spitterfields Market.
35:12When the container arrived, with the produce in it,
35:16I called him, I said, it's cleared, it's ready to collect.
35:20Anyway, his phone was under surveillance.
35:25Customs was thinking, hold on,
35:27how can it be cleared when these pineapples are still on the water?
35:32So they had absolutely no idea whatsoever
35:34about the coconut shipment.
35:37The officers who were investigating the pineapples,
35:41after hearing the container had been cleared,
35:43drove down to the docks.
35:46So, randomly, they decided to pull the container,
35:50they opened the container,
35:51and half a ton of cocaine literally
35:53fell out the back onto them all.
35:55If they were to have arrested the customs officers,
36:00suspended them,
36:01or investigated them in any way whatsoever,
36:03which they should have done,
36:05we instantly would have had a loophole.
36:07But not only us having a loophole,
36:09every single container
36:11that had gone through there with drugs in it,
36:14and everyone that had been arrested for those drugs over years,
36:18all those people that were in prison serving time for it,
36:21would have meant every single case would have had an appeal
36:23because the evidence that they'd given in call
36:27couldn't have been trusted.
36:28They were told to turn the blind eye
36:30and send us to collect it.
36:33The following evening, we went to the market.
36:36By this time,
36:38the cocaine had been replaced with blocks of wood.
36:42All the blocks of wood now were in the container.
36:47Customs pounced,
36:49and everyone was arrested.
36:51And it was basically a cut and dry case
36:54because for all intents and purposes,
36:58they made the biggest seizure at the time of cocaine in London.
37:04There'd never been a seizure of that size ever before.
37:07And, you know, we were carted off to prison
37:10awaiting, obviously, trial.
37:17So, it's December 2004.
37:22Myself and six co-defendants have all been arrested
37:25and we're all now locked up on remind at Wandsworth Prison.
37:30Four, being knowingly concerned in importation of 584 kilograms of cocaine.
37:36So, basically, it wasn't looking good.
37:39I remember when I saw my solicitor come to visit me in the prison.
37:44I said to him, you know, I said,
37:46it's, you know, it's a bad corner.
37:49I know it's a bad corner.
37:50You know, how's it looking?
37:52He said,
37:54as long as you've got a hole in your ass,
37:56you can't get it out of this one.
37:57So, basically, the evidence against us was
38:00four years of surveillance
38:02coming from the DEA,
38:05Interpol,
38:07Serious Crime Directive 7,
38:09Metro Middle Market Police,
38:12and Regional Crime Squad.
38:15There virtually wasn't an intelligence source
38:17that hadn't been gathering information on us
38:20over a period of years
38:21which had been compiled into public interest immunity.
38:25They had, in the police lockup,
38:28over 500 kilograms of pure cocaine.
38:31They had an abundance of, you know,
38:35cash, other things they'd managed to seize
38:38from the raids,
38:39which they conducted straight after.
38:41It, put bluntly, was not looking good.
38:44So, I was approached in prison
38:47by another inmate who said to me
38:50he had access to a corrupt officer
38:52that was aware of the case
38:53and he had access to all my case documents.
38:57So, the same corrupt officer
38:58was prepared for a quarter of a million pounds
39:01to go into Customs House,
39:04go into the safe under a different identity
39:07and steal all the documents.
39:09I was then slipped these documents in prison.
39:12So, what I realised,
39:13as soon as I saw them,
39:15they were all highly sensitive
39:16intelligence service documents.
39:18I thought to myself,
39:20this could be my golden ticket.
39:21All I had to do was find a method
39:24of devising bringing these documents
39:26into the court
39:27to cause enough of the benefit of a doubt.
39:30So, imagine these documents.
39:32My legal team couldn't see them.
39:34The only person who actually was allowed them
39:36was the judge and the prosecution.
39:38I managed to get them into court
39:40and literally cause bedlam.
39:42All bets were off.
39:44It caused complete madness.
39:46The judge was going ballistic
39:47but it created enough confusion
39:49to force a retrial.
39:50There's a retrial.
39:52Of course,
39:53this won't fall for the same trick twice.
39:54So, I'm searched before I go into court
39:57but I've pre-empted that's going to happen
39:59and arranged a pirate radio station
40:02broadcast the contents of the documents
40:05on the station.
40:06Second retrial,
40:08all seven of us were acquitted.
40:10So, May 2007,
40:12I'm released from custody,
40:14you know,
40:15taking a different direction in my life.
40:17My son Hayden is born
40:19and now I'm ready to go straight
40:22and live a normal life.
40:23But as they say,
40:24the road to hell
40:25is paved with good intentions.
40:26I decided it was time
40:27to go back to the music industry.
40:29Wasn't really getting me
40:30the same kind of financial gains
40:32that drug smuggling was getting me.
40:34So, I got back involved in the business.
40:36I made a lot of money
40:38in a very short period of time.
40:39That's where it all started to go wrong.
40:41Someone I knew
40:42who was a local guy to me,
40:44I lent some money
40:45to help him out of a situation
40:47and unfortunately,
40:49he'd been under police surveillance.
40:51There was no hope
40:52of me getting my money back.
40:53I was going to get involved,
40:55so I arranged a shipment
40:56but wanted to be nowhere near it.
40:58On the day of this product arriving,
41:00I was told
41:01I had to go with him to collect it.
41:03Now,
41:04I'm coming through
41:05the old school of gangsters,
41:06so I agreed I'll do it,
41:08but this is the arrangement.
41:09If police turn up
41:11or come anywhere near you,
41:12what I'll do is
41:13I'll be behind you
41:15and then any police
41:17stopping you
41:18or trying to stop you,
41:19I'll take them out of the road
41:20and you just carry on driving,
41:22take off
41:23and get rid of the gear.
41:24But unknown to me,
41:26he'd been a police magnate.
41:28So,
41:28he was either doing
41:29one of two things.
41:30He was either giving information
41:32deliberately to the police,
41:33but more likely,
41:35I felt he had the idea
41:36of taking drugs off of people
41:38and then not having to pay them
41:40because they were getting arrested.
41:41So,
41:42all he had to do
41:42was lead the police
41:43straight to them.
41:44The most bizarre thing was
41:45when the police
41:46did put on their sirens
41:48and I'd done what I said
41:50I was going to do
41:51and decided to take my ranger over
41:53and force him off of the road,
41:55he just literally
41:56slows down
41:57and pulls up
41:58with six kilograms
41:59of cocaine
42:00in the back seat.
42:01So,
42:01there I am,
42:03arrested,
42:04track record,
42:06been acquitted
42:07of 500 kilos plus
42:08seven years earlier
42:10and I'm centred now
42:12with driving a police car
42:14off of the road
42:14with drugs in that car.
42:17It ain't looking good.
42:18After two trials in 2014,
42:21I end up getting 15 years
42:23and become a category prisoner.
42:30It took a lot for me
42:31to wake up
42:32to reality
42:32but when I faced reality
42:34I was at Belmarsh Prison
42:36and I could see
42:37all these young guys
42:38and I saw them
42:39doing huge sentences.
42:41Their lives were wasted
42:42and the realisation
42:44came to me
42:44they were killing each other
42:45on the streets
42:46and my parents
42:47were community leaders.
42:49They were people
42:49who'd done everything
42:50they could
42:50to build communities
42:51and for all these years
42:53I'd been destroying them
42:54for my own
42:56self-gratification
42:57for things
42:59which I thought
43:00were so important
43:01to have
43:01possessions
43:02and the realisation
43:03came to it
43:04you know
43:05I had blood on my hands
43:06so
43:07my mission in life
43:09had to be
43:10how can I do something
43:11to rectify
43:13some of the
43:13I'd done in my life
43:14and turn stuff around
43:16and allowed my conscience
43:18finally
43:18to become my guide.
43:20People
43:22get arrested
43:23and they say
43:24ah poor me
43:25and they start
43:27to feel sorry
43:27for themselves
43:28but they don't
43:29give consideration
43:30for the victims
43:31I never gave consideration
43:33for any victims
43:34I asked myself
43:35the question
43:36would I want
43:38any of my children
43:39to go down this road
43:41the answer is no
43:42but more importantly
43:44would I want
43:45anyone else's child
43:46to go down this road
43:47and the answer
43:48to that is no.
43:49In 2019
43:51I was finally released
43:52from prison
43:53and started the AP Foundation
43:54the most important thing
43:56for me
43:57was to be able to
43:58put my life down
44:01in words
44:02to let people be able
44:03to read on it
44:04and reflect on it
44:04not as a
44:06vanity project
44:06but to serve
44:09as a lesson
44:10to serve as something
44:12to understand
44:12that
44:13when it all
44:15comes to the end
44:16when it turns
44:17the final chapter
44:19was it all worth it
44:20and the answer
44:22to that is no
44:22you have to go
44:24on a journey
44:24sometimes
44:25but the end destination
44:27sometimes
44:28or most times
44:29isn't quite
44:30what you thought
44:31it would be.
44:31so I wrote
44:32my autobiography
44:33Empire of Dirt
44:34to explain
44:35and understand
44:37what it is
44:38when it comes
44:39down to it
44:40you're just building
44:41an empire of dirt
44:42it has no
44:43substance
44:44or
44:45real value
44:46compared to
44:47the value of
44:48people
44:48relationships
44:55to this day
44:56the most common
44:59route of
45:00shipping cocaine
45:01is container ships
45:02but it's not just
45:03limited to container ships
45:05what the biggest one
45:06they do
45:06is the deep sea
45:07fishing tankers
45:09so they'll bring
45:10those in
45:10huge nets
45:12they'll be full of gear
45:13they'll put up
45:14the sat nav thing
45:16that they use
45:16for the ship
45:17and they'll drop them
45:18and then what happens
45:19is they drop them
45:19on the coast
45:20and then the smaller
45:22fishing trawlers
45:23around these areas
45:25we're talking about
45:25will go in and retrieve them
45:27subs have been going
45:28for a long while now
45:29for as long as actually
45:30I can remember
45:31from the 90s
45:32you know
45:32go fast boats
45:34are still very much
45:35in use
45:36you know
45:37to do the short runs
45:39you know
45:40all the traditional methods
45:42diving ships
45:43is very common
45:44where people put
45:45what we call
45:46torpedo at the bottom
45:46of it
45:47which is a
45:47large package of drugs
45:49and then divers
45:50going to retrieve it
45:51after it's survived
45:52prices
45:52will only go down
45:54if there's a bigger supply
45:56and a bigger demand
45:57and prices have dropped
45:59considerably
46:00seizures now
46:02are bigger
46:02than they used to be
46:03so
46:04perhaps we have
46:05a very small idea
46:06of what actually
46:08is being produced
46:09or what's actually
46:10getting through
46:10to what it really
46:12really is
46:12so we're moving
46:14away from
46:15where half a ton
46:16was a lot of drugs
46:18we're talking about
46:19shipments of 5-10 tons
46:21now
46:22coming through
46:22on a very regular basis
46:24and getting caught
46:24I think
46:25what's going on
46:26at the moment
46:27with fast boats
46:29being attacked
46:29and people being
46:31shot on them
46:31it's
46:32something obviously
46:34which is done
46:34for a scare tactic
46:36but people have to
46:37realise this
46:38for someone to
46:40get on a fast boat
46:41with four
46:43250 Yamaha engines
46:44and a massive
46:46tank of
46:46petrol
46:47on it
46:48filled with cocaine
46:50you're pretty desperate
46:51in the first place
46:52so the people
46:53that are getting
46:53shot here
46:54and getting killed
46:55are people
46:56at the very bottom
46:57of the ladder
46:58they're very easily
46:59replaced
47:00so it's not going
47:01to stop anything
47:02drugs could be
47:03and I say this
47:04as a form of drugs
47:04a scourge on society
47:06because when you
47:07honestly look
47:07what it does
47:08to people
47:10it destroys them
47:11but it doesn't
47:12just kill them
47:13it's what dies
47:14inside of them
47:15when they're alive
47:15we should actually
47:17look and say
47:17to ourselves
47:18maybe we should
47:19spend a bit more
47:20time and money
47:22researching it
47:23maybe some drugs
47:24should be legalised
47:25maybe some drugs
47:27should be
47:27look at the
47:27you know
47:28the initial purposes
47:29some drugs do have
47:31for example
47:32marijuana
47:33to help people
47:33with asthma
47:34and other conditions
47:35we now know
47:36it helps in cancer
47:37in some cases
47:38and situations
47:39maybe we should
47:40rethink it
47:41everyone wants
47:42to find themselves
47:43in the marketplace
47:44okay
47:45you know
47:46mainland Turkey
47:47was obviously
47:48a dominant place
47:49of heroin
47:49we all know this
47:50now
47:51the relationship
47:52obviously
47:53with
47:54cocaine
47:55being exchanged
47:56for heroin
47:57and
47:58you know
47:58Turkish syndicates
48:00having more influence
48:01as in
48:02Albanian
48:03syndicates
48:04having more influence
48:05so the dynamics
48:06changes every so often
48:07and it will be
48:08different in another
48:09five years
48:10kids are on the street
48:11dying
48:12you know
48:13for washed rock
48:14and they're putting
48:15their life on the line
48:16and there are guys
48:18out there going to prison
48:19for selling grams
48:20but
48:21when
48:22middle England
48:23and
48:24the society
48:25that turns around
48:26and gives out
48:27these big sentences
48:28stop
48:29making those phone calls
48:31after dinner
48:32because they want
48:33the social gram
48:34for the dinner party
48:35and when
48:36that stops
48:37that's when we can
48:38start to look about
48:39stopping the problem
48:40but it's supply and demand
48:41upper class people
48:43have glamorised cocaine
48:44to make it something
48:45that poor people want
48:46and what's a real shame
48:48is the people
48:49who really
48:50are at the helm
48:52of giving out
48:53huge sentences
48:53to the people
48:55who are
48:55the kids
48:56who are probably
48:57selling drugs
48:58you know
49:00to put some
49:01food on the table
49:02for their mum
49:02or to
49:03you know
49:04get the basic bits
49:05of pieces
49:05that they want
49:05not just
49:06all of them
49:07but a lot of them
49:08they're caught
49:09in a poverty belt
49:10are delivering
49:11the cocaine
49:12to upper class
49:14middle class
49:14people
49:15who are
49:15a lot of them
49:16are in the criminal
49:17justice system
49:18as lawyers
49:18a lot of them
49:19are accountants
49:21a lot of them
49:21are high
49:22you know
49:23level jobs
49:23making a lot of money
49:24and it's amusement
49:25for them
49:26but every
49:27gram of cocaine
49:28they put up
49:28their nose
49:30is blood
49:31that they are
49:32putting on the street
49:33with kids
49:34who are fighting
49:35over those deals
49:36who are fighting
49:37over those turfs
49:39Hi
49:39I'm a producer
49:40on how crime works
49:41if you enjoyed
49:42this video
49:42then please subscribe
49:43and comment below
49:44with more ideas
49:45of topics
49:46you'd like us
49:47to cover
49:47in this series
49:47please
49:52you
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