Andrew Pritchard the ‘fixer’ behind Britain’s largest ever drugs smuggling operation

Customs and Excise in London had labelled Andrew Pritchard the ‘fixer’ behind Britain’s largest ever drugs smuggling operation - half a ton of cocaine, “enough to keep London’s clubland snorting for months”.Held behind bars for 18 months, doing time for a crime he insisted he did not commit, Pritchard was subsequently exonerated. He was allowed to walk away from Her Majesty’s prison with all charges formally dropped against him. And that, he says, was the start of his transformation.

Andrew Pritchard signing a copy of his book. (Photos: Joseph Wellington)
Pritchard chronicles his experience in the no-holds-barred novel, Urban Smuggler, a book which will be made into a film, with some of the scenes shot on location here in Jamaica.“Oh yes, I was a smuggler,” Pritchard admits without reservation, in an interview the day after the local launch held recently in the gardens of the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.His smuggling escapades, however, were limited to Cuban cigars and those of the counterfeit variety - never cocaine or any such drug, he emphasises, his British accent sounding thick.Born in Britain to a Jamaican mother who migrated to that country in the 50s, in the book, Pritchard says that his introduction to smuggling came as a child on his return trip from Jamaica to England. He recalls wondering why the suitcases he and his sister were taking home were so heavy.
“When our suitcases were opened, they revealed dozens of bottles of white rum. I remember being amused, if not shocked. This, then was to be my first experience in smuggling.”And, if smuggling is to be defined as taking steps to import a legal substance without paying the customs and excise duties, then Pritchard here has quite casually opened a can of worms. Which traveller can honestly say they have never tried to ‘hide’ an item from the prying eyes of Customs officials in order to avoid paying duties? So, does that make us all smugglers? (Those of you without sin cast the first stone.)The author guilelessly recounts his chequered past - starting out in 1988 as a promoter for ‘warehouse parties’ - illegal, all-night events - through to 2004 when he became intimately involved with the Cuban cigar smuggling ring. The Foreword says it all. “Andrew was known to the police and the underworld from early 1980s when he was at the centre of the rave scene which transformed youth culture and drug use in the UK.”So, making strides in his career, Pritchard finds more lucrative ways to earn a living. “We brought top-end Cuban cigars and found a way to circumvent the excise and duties, which were ridiculously high at the time,” he told the Observer. “We later started smuggling counterfeit cigars through Cayman into England as well,” he added
And, crucial to the success of this smuggling enterprise was the Fast Team of Customs officials on Pritchard’s payroll, whose job it was to send through his containers of cigars without them being searched.It was while on his way to pick up one such sealed container that Pritchard’s neatly stacked deck of smuggling cards came tumbling down. He was arrested and charged with smuggling half a ton of premium grade cocaine with a street value of $100m, as that was what was allegedly found in the container, not cigars.The nightmare which followed saw a court case which cost nine million pounds, two hung juries and a final acquittal.
Surely the stuff of which books and films are made. And also the stuff from which the smuggler-turned-author made tons of cash. (”Oh, yes, smuggling was quite a lucrative enterprise,” he told us.)Casting is now being done for the international feature film

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London gangster Dean Oxley who controlled a group responsible for a string of attacks on a cash van and jewellery stores was jailed for 12 years

“The gang members were running into the jewellery shops, threatening the staff, smashing display cases with hammers and taking items of high value.”
London gangster Dean Oxley who controlled a group responsible for a string of attacks on a cash van and jewellery stores was jailed for 12 years yesterday. Dean Oxley, 30, recruited a group of 11 men, aged between18 and 29, to commit the violent raids that netted them £1 million. They used guns and hammers to threaten staff, including a pregnant women. Oxley from Lewisham, southeast London, was convicted of five charges of conspiracy to rob. They hit targets in Chelsea, West London, and the Brent Cross shopping centre in North London, making off with £1,025,900.00 in valuables. Police have only been able to recover Rolex and Omega watches worth £100,000. Kenneth Millett, for the prosecution, told Kingston Crown Court that Oxley "supervised" without actually taking part. “He was a natural born leader and orchestrated the events, waiting nearby to share out the proceeds," he said.
Detective Sergeant Steve Kiely of the Met’s Flying Squad said: “Dean Oxley was an prominent and influential figure within South London organised crime circles. He controlled a violent gang of young men, directing them to commit high value commercial robberies across the capital. “He regarded himself as untouchable, remaining at arm's length from any robbery. It has taken a lengthy and complex investigation by the Flying Squad to prove his involvement in what was a wide-scale conspiracy.” Oxley and three others were convicted after a trial at the court. Andel Watson, 19, and Damian Gordon, 27, were each jailed for six-and-a-half years years for conspiracy to rob, and Marvin Samuels, 23, for six years on the same charge.
Eight members of the gang admitted an array of offences at an earlier hearing, including robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and firearms offences, and received jail sentences ranging from three years to seven years. The gang’s crime spree began in April 2007 when two members robbed a cash-in-transit van at a petrol station in Norwood Hill, southeast London. The pair stole more than £5,000 before making their escape in a getaway car driven by a third member of the gang before being intercepted by police who had been tailing them. Less than a month later, the gang struck again at Pravin Jewellers in Brent Cross Shopping Centre. Four men entered the store and screamed at staff: “Don’t fu**ing move I have got a fu**ing gun.” They kicked open display cabinets before escaping with £200,000 worth of watches.
The gang then hit another jewellery shop in the shopping centre - Fraser Hart - just 11 days later, when six men entered wearing hoods and masks and forced staff to hand over more than £500,000 of watches. As they fled from the shop through the shopping centre, chased by security guards, they pushed one guard down a flight of escalators, and one of the gang was caught. A further robbery took place on July 2 when five gang members threatened staff at Ernest Jones in Chelsea with hammers. As one of the gang tried to smash open a cabinet full of Rolex watches he showered one terrified worker with glass before giving up and snatching goods from open cabinets.
As they left the store, with more than £220,000 of watches, a five-month pregnant member of staff was threatened with a chair. The last attack happened on July 31 when officers from Barnes Flying Squad followed three of the gang before they robbed Marmalade Jewellers in Chiswick, southwest London, of £33,000 of goods. The three men were arrested shortly afterwards near the scene, along with mastermind Oxley.

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Louis Vuitton, Luella Bartley, Marc Jacobs, Anya Hindmarch and Sonia Rykiel are just a few of the shops targeted by "scooter gangs"

Louis Vuitton, Luella Bartley, Marc Jacobs, Anya Hindmarch and Sonia Rykiel are just a few of the shops targeted by "scooter gangs" - criminals on mopeds who drive through the windows and take what they want. Oddly, they don't clear out the shop; rather, they pick and choose very specific handbags. This suggests they are taking orders, possibly for collectors who don't want to wait. It's all speculative at this point, as tracking of the stolen goods has proved unsuccessful. Bold smash-and-grab thefts of handbags in London's upscale designer shops are increasing, reports British Vogue in the September issue. Metropolitan Police say the gangs work in groups of six or more young men, and there are currently about six gangs operating in London. They work for a middleman who shifts the goods which are thought to be transported overseas, "likely Russia and the United Arab Emirates where you can still get a high price for a designer bag."Designers aren't only hit at the retail level. In August 2007, a shipment of shoes that Alice Temperley had co-designed with Christian Louboutin for her S/S 2008 collection in New York was stolen during transport in Italy during what appears to be a planned hijacking. Oddly, they've never turned up anywhere. More devastating is that some thefts could potentially ruin careers. Christopher Kane, one of London's brightest new talents, was burglarised eight days before the start of last September's London fashion week. Ignoring the neighbouring photography studios filled with expensive equipment, the thieves entered Kane's and carefully hand-picked items, says Kane "as if they were in a shop". Fortunately, he was able to remake the missing pieces in time to show his third collection, which was a hit. Had the entire collection been stolen, Kane acknowledges that in "such an unforgiving industry" he would have been "ruined".

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27 teenagers were stabbed to death last year

In London alone 27 teenagers were stabbed to death last year. There have been at least four deaths this year already. Two weeks ago, in a London suburb, a schoolgirl was beaten, gang-raped and then had caustic soda poured over her to eliminate traces of her attackers’ DNA. She is in a burns unit and fighting for her life.
Three youths are awaiting sentencing for kicking to death a harmless disabled man in Sunderland. In Warrington a father of three was beaten to death for protesting at youths who were vandalising cars. A few miles away a woman of 60 had to be put on life support after a thug fractured her face for refusing him a cigarette. She will be permanently blind in one eye.

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