In this latest review of the major crime cases in our area over the course of the year, we look back at drugs offences.
'We're going to prison, lad'
Nathan Madsen, 22, told a fellow dealer when police arrested them in Banbury in September 2021: “We’re going to prison, lad. We’ll get three years and do one-and-a-half.”
Jailing him for four-and-a-half years in February, Judge Ian Pringle KC said of Madsen’s misplaced attempt at perspicacity: “Well, you were wrong about that.”
The dealer, originally from Liverpool, was sentenced for dealing drugs in both Banbury and Shropshire.
The offences in Shropshire were uncovered when police raided a crack house and found Madsen packing drugs into his bottom.
Body scanners at the prison where Madsen was remanded in custody showed he’d ‘plugged’ 394 wraps of heroin and 322 wraps of crack cocaine up his fundament.
On the street, the drugs would have been worth around £7,300 – but their value in prison was estimated to be ‘at least £35,000’.
The man with whom Madsen was caught in Banbury, Charlie Winwood, was spared an immediate prison sentence in February.
However, after repeatedly disengaging with the probation service, the 24-year-old’s two year jail term was activated by Judge Michael Gledhill KC in December.
READ MORE: Jail for repeat drug dealer found in Banbury and Shropshire
Dealer's anger at jury
A dealer caught with three-quarters of a kilo of cocaine in his bedroom safe said it was a ‘big misjustice’ as he was jailed for five-and-a-half years in March.
The vast quantity of high-strength powder was discovered when police raided Philip Pledge’s room in the Bartlemas Road property on October 28, 2020.
Found on Pledge, 54, was the key to the safe in which the cocaine had been stashed. The amount of cocaine found in the room totalled 789g.
As he was taken down from the dock in courtroom one to the cells below court, Pledge could be seen shaking his head towards the jury who’d just convicted him. He was heard saying the words ‘big misjustice’ and ‘you’re so wrong’.
READ MORE: Dealer says it’s a ‘big misjustice’ as he’s convicted
Chef served with four-and-a-half years
Chef Jumoke Brewster had cocaine worth £100,000 on his passenger seat – as well as 1.5kg of cannabis in a box on the back seat.
Police pulled over Brewster’s red Mazda in Iffley Road, Oxford, on November 18 last year. The officers became suspicious when he seemed keen to retrieve the bag.
Jailing him for four-and-a-half years in May, Judge Nigel Daly said: “This is a comparatively simple offence. You were caught with a lot of drugs in your car. Quite a lot of cannabis – about 1.5kgs altogether. You pleaded guilty to that at the plea and trial preparation hearing and of course you will get credit for that.
“You didn’t plead guilty initially to the cocaine but you have done today on what was to be the day of trial.
“The fact of the matter is there was a kilogramme of cocaine in your possession, you were intending to supply it, you were a custodian so it was going back to the person who gave it to you in the first place. Then it would have gone on up the chain to be supplied to the general public.”
READ MORE: Chef caught with £100k of coke and cannabis in his Mazda on Iffley Road
'Gobby's' master
Tayaub Hussain was running a drugs line nicknamed ‘Gobby’ when he was stopped a stone’s throw from his own house in Queen Street, Banbury, on April 4.
The dealer, who was then out of prison on early-release licence, was searched and had more than £1,180 stuffed in various pockets. His house was raided and, in his bedroom, police found a 27g block of heroin that could have been worth up to £2,700 if broken down into smaller street deals of £10 each.
Despite being just 28 years old, he has more than 30 previous convictions – half of them for drugs. When he came before the courts this year it was for his third class A drug supply offence in four years.
Jailing him for six years and a month in May, Judge Nigel Daly said: “Mr Hussain, I know you may be somewhat intellectually challenged but you have been appearing before these courts over the years time and time again.
“If you keep supplying controlled drugs, if you keep supplying class A drugs you will keep being sent to prison.
“That is your life if you keep doing it. It is very straightforward; don’t do it and you won’t get sent to prison. And that doesn’t take a massive intelligence to understand.”
READ MORE: 'Not very bright' drug dealer jailed for THIRD heroin supply offence in four years
Drug chief: 'We dodged a bullet'
Drug kingpin Richard Gray boasted to his brother, Patrick, that they had ‘dodged a big ****ing bullet’.
All around them, criminals who had used the heavily-encrypted Encrochat phone network were being arrested after the service had been cracked by French police.
Richard thought he was safe, but he was wrong.
Detectives were already on their tail. They had received via the National Crime Agency a dossier of Gray’s Encro messages and, on the strength of it, launched an investigation into the operation.
Police put a farm near Farmoor Reservoir that was used by the group under surveillance and bugged Richard’s specially-converted courier van.
In July, Richard Gray received 21 years’ imprisonment. His brother, Patrick, was given 18 years. Other members of the gang received sentences of between seven-and-a-half years and 12 years.
READ MORE: 66 years behind bars for cocaine conspirators
‘Thames Water’ drugs courier
Former Thames Water contractor Christopher Wood disguised the van he used to courier cocaine across the country.
The 35-year-old wrapped the van with Thames Water livery and also wore water board-branded clothing in order to cover his tracks.
Over just a few months, Wood was estimated to have handed around 23kgs of cocaine, received £449,000 cash and delivered £308,000.
He was given a heavily-encrypted EncroChat phone with the username ‘BasilBanana’, which he used to take instructions from his bosses and send back status reports.
Wood was jailed for five years in June.
READ MORE: Drugs courier transported KILOS of cocaine in 'Thames Water van'
Lockdown cocaine foot soldiers
Two ‘foot soldiers’ in a massive Oxford organised crime group were jailed for handling class A drugs.
Despite cocaine and ketamine with an estimated street value of £1.5m passing through his hands over just two weeks in May 2020, Benjamin Chen received just £2,000 for the risky work – which included booking AirBnBs to warehouse the drugs. He was jailed for six years in September
Another foot soldier, Joseph Cleaton, was responsible for handling cocaine worth an estimated £1m on the street. He communicated with bosses above him in the gang using an expensive, heavily-encrypted ‘EncroChat’ telephone. In December, he was jailed for six years.
READ MORE: Drug gang foot soldier 'StaySharp' handled cocaine worth £1m
‘Ace’ dealer
County Lines drug dealer Michael Adesanmi ran the ‘Ace’ line from his London base.
Police raided Adesanmi’s shared house in Ilford in the summer. After experiencing ‘some resistance’ from the defendant, who was in the room at the time, they managed to get inside.
There were a ‘large number’ – 877 - of wraps of drugs on the floor. Inside a safe was £3,300 in cash. Also found in the room was a haul of designer clothing and a Rolex watch with an estimated value of £7,500-£9,500.
The drugs alone had an estimated value of £17,500, according to a police expert.
The officers found the ‘Ace’ drugs line phone, which analysis showed was typically seen in the same area as his personal phone.
Messages on his telephone led them to co-defendant Michelle Metherell, who lived some seven miles away in Hackney and to whom he had ‘outsourced’ the wrapping of his drugs.
In November, Recorder John Hardy KC imposed six years and four months’ imprisonment on Adesnmi.
READ MORE: Repeat drug dealer given six year sentence
Coke in the car
Chef Adrian-Marius Bucin, 33, moved from his native Romania to England for work so he could send money home to his young family.
But when he arrived, he found himself ‘lured’ into working for drugs suppliers.
In July, he was given a car, 300g of cocaine and told to drive north to Sheffield with his mobile phone on airplane mode so his route could not be tracked. He never made it to Sheffield, with police pulling him over in the Home Counties.
Judge Maria Lamb jailed him for three years in November.
READ MORE: Chef never made it to Sheffield with 300g of cocaine in his car
Ecstasy and a Cartier watch
Police raided Mark Corner’s Bodicote home in October, finding cocaine packaged into street deals in the kitchen together with scales, designer jumpers and cash.
A locked safe contained a bag of more than 1,000 pills of MDMA – or ecstasy – and 106g of cocaine.
Corner also had a gold Cartier watch, valued by auctioneers at £8,000-£10,000. He had £3,720 in cash. The total street value of the drugs had been put at £26,900.
Police had analysed his phone but were unable to uncover longer-term evidence of his drug dealing business as Corner was said to have been using heavily-encrypted app Signal.
Jailing him for four years and two months in December, Judge Ian Pringle KC said: “These are substantial amounts of drugs here - £26,000-worth of drugs - and a lot of cash; all the trappings of a major or quite significant operation.”
READ MORE: Cocaine dealer named in 'Valentine's Eve' murder trial had Cartier watch
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