Cocaine cartel smashed
January 6, 2006 - thesun.co.uk
One of the biggest cocaine cartels ever to operate in Britain has been smashed, it can be revealed today.
Two Colombian drug barons, who headed the cartel are serving jail sentences of 19 and 17 years.
Former asylum seekers Jesus Anibal Ruiz-Henao, 45, and his brother-in-law Mario Tascon, 32, headed a network which imported cocaine worth tens, possibly hundreds, of millions of pounds into the country.
The scope of their network, which supplied drugs to every major UK city, was such that after their arrest the price of cocaine on the streets shot up by 50 per cent.
It was considered by the authorities to be the UK’s largest drug distribution network, employing at least 50 people.
Full details of the cartel - and the police operation to smash it - could only be revealed today after the last of a series of inter-connecting trials got under way.
More than 30 other people have been involved in a series of linked cases, which were covered by reporting restrictions until this morning when the last of the defendants pleaded guilty to an offence of assisting another to retain the benefits of drug trafficking at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
The main players in the cocaine cartel were Ruiz-Henao and Tascon.
The pair, from the Colombian town of Pereira, arrived in Britain as asylum seekers in 1990, claiming they were fleeing persecution in their home country. They were granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
By the time of their arrest in November 2003, they were running an empire which is thought may have smuggled as much as a tonne of cocaine - around ?25million worth - into the country each year at its height.
According to senior detectives who smashed the racket, Ruiz-Henao was effectively the “sales distribution manager” for cocaine in the UK. He was the network’s number one and Tascon was his deputy.
Their capture was the result of a four-year investigation by the National Crime Squad and the Colombian authorities.
It was running in tandem to a Scotland Yard investigation, which began in 2001, into a linked money laundering racket. More than 60 people have been arrested in the UK in connection with the two cases.
A total of ?3,500,000 in cash and 645kg of cocaine was seized by police during the course of the two investigations.
Ruiz-Henao and Tascon were under surveillance for two years.
One of the most significant swoops during the operation to capture the gang was the seizure of a lorry in Thurrock, in Essex in which 72 kilos of cocaine were hidden in pallets.
Ruiz-Henao, Hendon, north London and Tascon, also of Hendon, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs at a hearing last year.
They were jailed for 19 years and 17 years respectively at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
They also both pleaded guilty to money laundering, for which Ruiz-Henao received 10 years and Tascon nine years - to run concurrently.
Sentencing the pair, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said those who ran the drugs industry were “very rarely caught”.
“This is because they pay other people to carry out the dangerous work where an arrest is more likely,” he said.
“Their fingerprints are not found on the drug packaging, no telephone is shown to have made relevant calls, nothing incriminating is found in their homes.
“Others carry out their tasks. Meanwhile they make enormous profits from this foul trade.”
Fortunately Jesus Ruiz-Henao and Mario Tascon were a rare and welcome exception. An extensive investigation resulted in a “compelling” case against them.
The judge added: “There is only a small distinction between importers and distributors and in this case where all the parties are Colombian and you Ruiz-Henao and Tascon are as high in the organisation as you are, I think the distinction is almost non-existent.
“You Ruiz-Henao were, as you accept, a senior figure in the organisation in this country. I haven’t seen evidence of anyone more senior.”
They would be recommended for deportation on their release, the judge told them.
Two other members of the network, Wimar de Jesus Ospina Castano, 35, of Tottenham, north London and Jose Manuel Rojes-Pineda, 35, of Rotherhithe, south east London, were each jailed for four years in May last year for money laundering.
Four other men linked to the gang, who were arrested following the seizure of the lorry in Thurrock, were convicted and sentenced in February 2004.
William Ruiz-Henao, 33 - Jesus Anibal’s younger brother - of east London, and Ramon Navarro, 39, from Almeira in Spain, were jailed for 16 years and 18 years respectively for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Roque Garcia-Martinez, 31, also from Almeira, and Ivan Garcia Ospina, 31, of Haringay, north London, were jailed for 13 and 16 years respectively for the same offence.
The National Crime Squad (NCS) and Scotland Yard initially began separate investigations into the activities of the network.
The NCS were looking at a drug smuggling ring - Operation Habitat - the Metropolitan Police at a money laundering racket - Operation Anuric.
It was not until later that the agencies realised the two were linked. The drug smugglers were using the money launderers.
A total of 26 other people linked to either the drug smuggling or money laundering sides of the network have already either pleaded guilty or been convicted of various offences.
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