International drugs lord jailed after police sting (From The Argus)

International drugs lord jailed after police sting

4:11pm Thursday 8th March 2007 in News By Nigel Freedman

The mastermind of a £2 million plot to smuggle drugs into Brighton Marina was jailed today for 34 years.

Christopher Quaddy will have to serve at least 17 years before he is even considered for release.

A judge said the building firm boss was "at the very top" of an international drugs ring.

He is believed to have "significant assets" hidden abroad and the hunt is now on to track them down.

Quaddy was so arrogant that he even drove one shipment of drugs across Europe himself.

He took it from Madrid to Dieppe where it was sailed across the Channel to Brighton Marina.

Extra security was brought in at Hove Crown Court when the Quaddy was sentenced today.

He was brought into court in handcuffs after police received information that he might try to escape.

His conviction in December after an eight week trial came after undercover officers from the National Crime Squad smashed an international drugs ring at Brighton Marina.

Judge Anthony Niblett yesterday praised their work which has resulted in members of the cartel being jailed for a total of 93 years.

Heroin with a street value of £1.5million, one of the biggest drugs hauls recovered in Sussex, was seized as a result of the operation.

Detectives secretly filmed meetings between Quaddy, 34, and other gang members at MacDonalds at the marina in June, 2005.

They kept watch as the yacht Lola set sail for France and returned three days later with 28kg of heroin on board.

Yacht skippers John Pratt and Mikael Jensen were arrested as they handed the drugs to Darrell Pilgrim on the sixth floor of the marina car park on June 5.

Pilgrim, the ring's quartermaster, was jailed for 18 years last month after admitting his part in the plot.

Gary Fannan, who acted as Quaddy's "gopher" got nine years for helping his boss and storing 92,000 ecstasy tablets hidden inside a car wheel in his back garden.

Pratt and Jensen are now serving eight years each after they admitted making cross-Channel drugs runs in May and June, 2005.

Both turned Queen's Evidence and named Quaddy as the Mr Big behind the drugs ring at his trial in October.

They told a jury at Hove Crown Court how he recruited them in Palma, Majorca, and softened them up with a trip to top London night club China White.

He provided the cash for them to buy the yacht Lola in Falmouth for £45,000 but did not want the transaction to have his name on it.

The skippers sailed her to Brighton Marina where she underwent a refit to prepare for the drugs runs to France.

Both admitted they hoped for a substantial reduction in the 24 year sentence they would have received had they not co-operated.

After their arrest they told police about the first run they made to pick up cocaine in France which detectives would not otherwise have known about.

A kilo of cocaine and £70,000 in cash was found when police raided Pilgrim's home in Hampton, West London.

Quaddy led an opulent lifestyle with a £1 million house in Ascot.

He drove a series of flash cars including a Porsche, Mercedes and Audi A8.

But he insisted his money came from the concrete floor screeding business he ran.

He helped his friend Danny Reynolds to hide on the Lola at Brighton after he narrowly escaped arrest as police intercepted a drugs run involving 50 kilos of heroin in Slough.

Pratt and Jensen were then ordered to sail Reynolds to Spain where he was later arrested.

Reynolds was extradited and was jailed for 16 years in November after pleading guilty to smuggling drugs.

Quaddy had a "go bag" containing £2,000 in euros and sterling as well as his passport and driving licence when he was arrested.

Timothy Probert-Wood, prosecuting, told the court that Quaddy had no previous drugs convictions.

Joanna McEgan, defending, said Quaddy's 74-year-old mother is seriously ill and will probably never see him again.

Judge Niblett told Quaddy: "You were a significant organiser and distributor of drugs shipments into this country.

"You are a highly intelligent and resourcesful man who is prepared to take great risks for great financial rewards.

"You were the prime mover planning the operations, recruiting those necessary to carry it out, supplying the necessary funds, directing the movements of those involved and on occasion carrying the drugs yourself across Europe.

"You are at the heart of a conspiracy of international drugs dealers operating at the very top of the supply chain into the United Kingdom.

"Your lifestyle shows the rewards you reaped and the luxury in which you lived, "That lifestyle turned on the profits derived from the addiction of others to Class A drugs.

"It is an addiction that ruins the lives of so many and which can, and often does, lead to deaths."