CPS News Brief

Two sentenced for plotting to bring up to three tonnes of cocaine to the streets of Europe

Anthony Dennis and Anthony Wilson were sentenced yesterday at the Old Bailey to over 25 years for a major drug smuggling operation.

Anthony Hill, specialist prosecutor in the CPS Organised Crime Division, said:

“These men worked with criminals overseas to plan a large and complex drug-smuggling operation, plotting to bring up to three tonnes of cocaine from South America. If successful, this would have flooded the streets of Europe with drugs worth hundreds of millions of Euros.

“Their criminal activity was co-ordinated overseas, but so was the response from the criminal justice system. We worked closely with Dutch authorities and the National Crime Agency and the strength of our evidence left the defendants with no choice but to plead guilty.”

Brendan Foreman, the National Crime Agency’s Regional Head of Investigations, said: “Dennis and Wilson joined forces with international criminals to bring up to three tonnes of cocaine into Europe, some of which was highly likely to have ended up on UK streets.

“They thought the café in Rotterdam was a safe place to conduct their operations but by working in partnership with the Dutch National Police the NCA was able to identify them and put a stop to their plan.”

Background

In 2013, a programme of co-ordinated arrests took place in Holland, Germany and in the UK. Since 2012, the Dutch National Crime Squad had investigated a hub of drug trafficking and money laundering run from a café in Rotterdam called the Café de Ketel. The café was a front for criminal activity of two brothers and their associates, and those who visited the café to meet with them were involved in the importation and distribution of drugs. The Dutch authorities were able to covertly record some of those meetings.

This prosecution concerned the importation of cocaine from South America involving Anthony Dennis and Anthony Wilson who were based in Essex when plotting the operation. The system of importing the drugs involved inserting them into shipping containers which were carrying legitimate cargo from South America. Once the container reached the European port an associate would open the container, extract the drugs and reseal it and then the container would continue to its destination.

Dennis and Wilson’s enterprise went disastrously wrong when they failed to extract a consignment of 67.5kg of cocaine from a shipping crate in the port at Antwerp in Belgium. The drugs were discovered by German police before they could access it when the crate went on to its final destination.

Dennis and Wilson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a foreign drug trafficking offence, namely to import cocaine into the Netherlands.

Sentencing details:

Anthony Dennis - 13 years 4 months.

Anthony Wilson - 12 years.

Husband and wife convicted for keeping a man in slavery for 24 years

Emanuel Edet, 61, and Antan Edet, 58, were convicted today at Harrow Crown Court for three charges relating to their treatment of a man who was brought into the country illegally at the age of 14 to work as a slave for the defendants.

The victim, who is now 40, was paid nothing for the work he carried out, including looking after the couple’s two children, cooking, cleaning and gardening. He was denied access to education and only had very limited contact with his family and the outside world. His passport was taken away from him and he had no identity documents.

The Edets changed the victim’s name and added him to their family passport as their son when they first brought him to the UK in 1989. He believed they would pay him for his work as a ‘houseboy’ and would provide him with an education while he was in the UK.

Damaris Lakin, CPS London reviewing lawyer, said:

“Emanuel and Antan Edet have cruelly robbed this victim of 24 years of his life. They have treated him with complete contempt.

“Not only did the defendants have total psychological control over the victim, but they also had control of his passport and identity documents. He was told by the Edets that if he left the house and reported matters to the police he would be arrested as an illegal immigrant and sent back to Nigeria. He believed this and felt trapped and completely dependent on the Edets.

“The victim’s dreams of gaining an education in the UK were destroyed as he realised the Edets had no intention of sending him to school and he was made to work up to 17 hours a day, eat all his meals alone and have no social interaction with the family. He was made to sleep largely on the floor in hallways despite there often being a spare bedroom in the houses where the family lived.

“This was a shocking case of modern day slavery which has no place in our society. I hope that the convictions today give some comfort to the victim and that he can now start rebuilding his life.”

 

Charged faced by both defendants:

Cruelty to a child contrary the Children and Young Persons Act 1933

Slavery contrary the Coroners and Justice Act 2009

Assisting unlawful immigration contrary to the Immigration Act 1971