Two drugs traffickers whose organised crime group was brought down after sending a picture of a pet dog, have been told to hand over almost £1.2m.
Stefan Baldauf (right), 64, and Philip Lawson (below), 63, were part of an organised crime group (OCG) that was brought to justice under Operation Venetic – the NCA-led response to the takedown of encrypted communications platform EncroChat in 2020.
The OCG orchestrated a sophisticated plan to send 448kg of amphetamine worth £45m, to Australian accomplices hidden in the arm of an excavator and even rigged an auction to ensure the drugs reached their intended recipients.
But the plan fell apart after a painstaking NCA investigation was aided by fellow OCG member Danny Brown, 57, sending Baldauf a picture of his French Bulldog Bob, with his partner’s phone number on its tag.
Investigators zoomed in on the number and used it, among many other tactics, to prove Brown, of Kings Hall Road, Bromley, Kent, was part of the conspiracy.
Baldauf, of Midhurst Road, Ealing, London, also sent an image on EncroChat – which offenders thought was impenetrable – showing his reflection in a brass door sign.
Yesterday (Monday), at Kingston Crown Court, Baldauf, who was jailed for 28 years in December 2022, was ordered to repay £1,007,637. He has three months to pay or will receive an extra seven years in jail.
Lawson, who designed the drugs hide in the digger and arranged a welder to cut it open and then seal the digger, was sentenced to 23 years.
He was ordered to pay £182,476. He also has three months to pay with failure resulting in the imposition of another three years on his sentence.
The funds will go towards further crime fighting and the Treasury.
Brown, who was jailed for 26 years, will face a confiscation hearing later in the year along with another of the group, William Sartin, 63, of Timberlog Lane, Basildon, Essex. The excavator was concealed in Sartin’s industrial unit. He was sentenced to 23 years.
Baldauf, Brown, Lawson and four other men in the UK were jailed for 163 years. There were also two prosecutions by the Australian Federal Police.
Chris Hill led the NCA investigation.
He said: “These criminals did not care about the misery and exploitation that the supply of illegal drugs bring to UK and Australian communities.
“All they cared about was money.
“So these proceedings are immensely painful for them, hitting them in their pockets and are a crucial way of showing other organised criminals that the consequences do not end when the prison door slams shut.
“The NCA continues to do everything possible, working at home and abroad, to protect the public from the threat of illegal drugs supply.”
21 January 2025
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