Drug traffickers nabbed after sending photo of pet French Bulldog ordered to pay $1.4 million

Drug traffickers whose complete organized crime ring was introduced down by a photograph of a French Bulldog have been ordered to fork over greater than $1.4 million, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency said. 

Stefan Baldauf, 64, and Philip Lawson 63, have been drug traffickers nabbed in 2020 as a part of Operation Venetic together with different members of their group for smuggling medicine from the UK to Australia. The traffickers despatched 448kg of amphetamine price about $46 million in an arm of an excavator down beneath.

The traffickers even rigged an public sale to verify the amphetamine went into the fitting arms. The medicine, which investigators stated was MDMA, was first saved within the heavy gear in an industrial unit in Grays, Essex, earlier than being shipped to Australia. It took virtually three months to reach in Brisbane, the Nationwide Crime Company stated.

The ruse, nonetheless, fell aside when fellow trafficker Danny Brown despatched a photograph of his French Bulldog, Bob, to Baldauf.

Investigators have been ready to make use of the photograph — which had his accomplice’s telephone quantity on its tag — and different strategies to search out and crack down on the organized felony group.

“These criminals didn’t care in regards to the distress and exploitation that the provision of unlawful medicine convey to UK and Australian communities,” stated Chris Hill, who led the NCA investigation.

Baldauf, Brown, Lawson and 4 different males within the UK have been sentenced for a mix of 163 years, the Nationwide Crime Company stated. The opposite members will face a confiscation listening to later this yr.