Drug dealers whose entire organized crime network was destroyed by a photo of a French bulldog have been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million, said the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Stefan Baldauf, 64, and Philip Lawson, 63, were drug traffickers arrested in 2020 as part of Operation Venetic along with other members of their group for trafficking drugs from the UK to Australia. Traffickers sent 448 kg of amphetamine worth around $46 million in the arm of an excavator halfway across the world.
Traffickers even rigged an auction to ensure the amphetamine fell into the right hands. The drug, which investigators believe was MDMA, was first stored in heavy equipment at an industrial unit in Grays, Essex, before being shipped to Australia. It took almost three months to arrive in Brisbane, the National Crime Agency said.
The ruse, however, collapsed when fellow trafficker Danny Brown sent a photo of his French bulldog, Bob, to Baldauf.
National Crime Agency
Investigators were able to use the photo – which had his partner’s phone number on its tag – and other methods to track down and crack down on the organized crime group.
“These criminals did not care about the misery and exploitation that the supply of illegal drugs brings to British and Australian communities,” said Chris Hill, who led the NCA investigation.
Baldauf, Brown, Lawson and four other men in the UK were given a combined sentence of 163 years, the National Crime Agency said. The remaining members will face a forfeiture hearing later this year.