---
title: 'How Drug Trafficking on Cargo Ships Actually Works | Insider'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=DWPih6ZyvBo'
video_id: 'DWPih6ZyvBo'
date: 2026-08-05
duration_sec: 3004
---

# How Drug Trafficking on Cargo Ships Actually Works | Insider

> Source: [How Drug Trafficking on Cargo Ships Actually Works | Insider](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DWPih6ZyvBo)

## Summary

A former drug smuggler details the mechanics of moving cocaine and cannabis through legitimate cargo channels, from bribing customs officials to concealing drugs in produce and containers. He recounts his rise from UK warehouse parties to international trafficking, his eventual arrest, and his turn to crime prevention.

### Key Points

- **Entry into the drug economy** [00:42] — Started in the sound system culture in 1983, playing at parties. By 22, he was making fast money and saw an opportunity to smuggle ecstasy using legitimate cargo routes, particularly perishable goods for quick clearance.
- **Jamaica's strategic role** [01:47] — Jamaica is geographically ideal for smuggling; in the early '90s, over 10% of Colombian cocaine was transshipped through Jamaica. He leveraged contacts with customs officers and products.
- **Mentor's rules: the three T's** [03:02] — His mentor, Bible, taught him to never trust the three T's: never talk on the telephone, never send a text, and never tell a woman, as these can lead to a life sentence.
- **Cocaine sourcing and pricing** [04:02] — Cocaine is bought close to source or from corrupt police. In Colombia, paste cost ~$600/kilo, refined to ~$900/kilo. He avoided Colombia to stay off DEA watchlists, preferring Tobago.
- **Shipping methods and customs routes** [06:10] — Drugs are shipped via vessels or planes. Perishable goods are cleared quickly. UK customs has routes: route one (document check, 24h), route two (physical inspection), route six (instant clearance for trusted companies).
- **Exploiting produce imports** [07:37] — He used companies importing fruit and veg, guaranteeing clearance. A hot sauce brand's boxes were used to smuggle weed. A rain accident revealed 4.5 tons of weed when a container fell.
- **Concealment techniques** [09:00] — Built false walls in containers, using rusty rivets to look authentic. Later, density meters could detect them. Refrigerated containers had hidden compartments. Sometimes drugs were hidden in produce like plantains, leading to accidental discoveries.
- **Corruption and costs** [11:15] — Moving crime involves paying customs and border force. For a container of cocaine, he paid $400,000 in Jamaica, covering brokers, customs officers, and dog handlers.
- **Distribution network** [13:09] — A half-ton shipment goes to three people, broken into 200-key lots, then down to ounces and grams. The social dealer emerged from ecstasy culture, where people started selling pills to friends and became class A dealers.
- **Money laundering** [14:34] — Cash was the lifeblood. He used businesses importing lorries, hiding money in vehicle parts and welding them shut. Money was sold on the black market in Jamaica. Investments in nightclubs and property were common but traceable.
- **Violence and consequences** [16:18] — Cocaine trade brought ruthless violence. Associates were killed, e.g., Blacka Ducha assassinated in broad daylight. He saw people shot and burned. Many avoided cocaine due to its violence.
- **Quality and personal use** [18:20] — He never sold a product he hadn't taken, except heroin. He used cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana but avoided using while smuggling. Quality is key; he bought the best and sold cheap. Good cocaine dissolves in oil and has a distinct smell.
- **Airport smuggling methods** [19:43] — Airport smuggling involved baggage handlers and smaller quantities. He used flight cases for cricket bats, but Jamaica wasn't the last stop. He then used computer screens from Venezuela, creating a steady import business and hiding cocaine in them.
- **The 'stiff' method** [21:45] — He smuggled cocaine in a coffin, using a fake passport and a paid doctor to issue a death certificate. The body was shipped and retrieved by a local undertaker.
- **Rise in the music scene** [23:06] — Started sound system with friends, threw warehouse parties in 1988, attracting celebrities. This led to the Genesis company and connections with the underworld. Ecstasy profits were huge: bought for £3, wholesaled for £6-8.
- **First arrest and flight** [25:01] — In January 1992, police raided a safe house, and he fled to Jamaica via false passport. He kept a low profile but got involved with a politician's daughter and Miss Jamaica, landing in the news. He ended up in prison but bribed his way out.
- **Return to smuggling in Jamaica** [26:28] — Around 1997, he reconnected with old friends and Bible's contacts. He learned the weed trade: buying for $70/kilo in Jamaica, selling for $3,000/pound in England. He used cane rafters, ambulances, and even police to transport weed.
- **Reggae Sunsplash and arrest** [29:09] — In 1999, he organized a major reggae event. A driver used a stolen car, leading to a police raid. He was arrested but released on bail without charges, returning to Jamaica in November.
- **Corrupt customs team** [31:23] — A contact with a military background offered access to a team of corrupt customs officers. They charged £1 million per container, with £100,000 upfront. He successfully cleared 500 kilos of cocaine on the first shipment.
- **The pineapple scheme and downfall** [34:06] — An associate worked with another team smuggling cocaine in hollowed pineapples. Police were surveilling them. In December 2004, a container with 584 kg of cocaine in coconuts was cleared, but police pulled it after hearing about the pineapple shipment. The cocaine was replaced with wood, and he was arrested.
- **Trial and acquittal** [37:21] — He was charged with importing 584 kg of cocaine. Evidence included four years of surveillance. A corrupt officer stole case documents for £250,000. He leaked them in court, causing a retrial. He broadcast the documents on pirate radio, leading to acquittal for all seven defendants in May 2007.
- **Return to crime and final arrest** [40:14] — After release, he tried to go straight but returned to smuggling. He lent money to a man under surveillance. On the day of a shipment, he was forced to accompany him. When police stopped them, he rammed a police car but was arrested with 6 kg of cocaine. In 2014, he received 15 years.
- **Realization and redemption** [42:23] — In prison, he saw young men with wasted lives and realized he had blood on his hands. He decided to turn his life around and help others avoid the same path.
- **AP Foundation and autobiography** [43:54] — Released in 2019, he started the AP Foundation and wrote his autobiography 'Empire of Dirt' to serve as a lesson. He emphasizes that building an empire of dirt has no real value compared to people and relationships.
- **Modern smuggling methods** [45:00] — Container ships are the biggest method, but deep-sea fishing trawlers drop nets with drugs and use satnav to mark locations for smaller boats. Subs have been used since the '90s, and go-fast boats are still common. Diving ships use torpedoes for retrieval.
- **Market dynamics and prices** [45:55] — Prices have dropped due to increased supply. Seizures are bigger, suggesting more gets through. Shipments of 5-10 tons are now common. Violence on fast boats is a scare tactic, but those killed are easily replaced.
- **Call for drug policy reform** [47:01] — He suggests researching drugs and possibly legalizing some, like marijuana for medical use. He criticizes the hypocrisy of middle and upper-class users while poor kids face harsh sentences. He notes the shift from Turkish to Albanian syndicates in heroin.

### Conclusion

The smuggler's story illustrates the vast scale and corruption in drug trafficking, but also the personal and societal devastation it causes. He now advocates for drug policy reform and uses his experience to warn others.

## Transcript

arrested for smuggling $130 million worth of cocaine from the Caribbean to worth of cocaine from the Caribbean to Europe. And this is how crime works. It was becoming an everyday occurrence that business associates were getting
killed. There has been loads of occasions when you've actually walked into a situation and in the back of your head you're thinking, I might not leave this room. A person who's addicted to drugs is addicted to the drugs. A
smuggler is addicted to the lifestyle and it's almost like a poison in your and it's almost like a poison in your blood.
From around 1983 was when I entered into the sand system culture and I was asked to play at the parties, produce my sand system there. I was playing my own gigs and becoming quite established. It brought a lot of attention from a lot of
people. Understanding he was still very young man at this time, 22 years old, making fast amounts of money, entertaining, you know, thousands and thousands of people every single weekend. The drug economy was becoming
massive. Of course, ecstasy, you had a whole network of people that sold and distributed those drugs. So I saw an opportunity because I realized by utilizing people I had who were actually bringing in legitimate cargo, legitimate
goods which are coming in every day mainly perishable goods for quick clearance and started bringing ecstasy tablets in that way because of the easy availability from Holland where the pills were coming in from and the size
of the parties upscaling it quickly became a multi-million pound business. became a multi-million pound business. So in 1992 I landed in Jamaica. My mom came from Jamaica in 1951 and I was born of the first mixed race generation
postering rush kids. Geographically, Jamaica is the most wellpositioned island in the Caribbean Sea for smuggling. One period in the early '9s, smuggling. One period in the early '9s, they estimated over 10% of all the
cocaine produced in Colombia was trans shipped through Jamaica. I realized I had access to customs officers and I had access to products. By the turn millennium, thanks to a great connection with the Eastern Caribbean cartel, I
moved on to cocaine. a member of my extended family. Bible I suppose was my mentor who'd returned to Jamaica and basically they had been a smuggler but had retired but was at that time involved in the dollar exchange business
which basically US dollars of course were in great demand in Jamaica because of his contacts in the drug trade meant that people would come to him in order for him to exchange their US dollars, Canadian dollars and pound sterling back
into Jamaican dollars. So he was a bridge between the underworld and the you know business people in Jamaica. Bible let me understand how that business used to work. You know years ago he used to bring literally uh tons
of Colombian gold marijuana from Colombia into the states because there was a huge demand for it during the 70s. cocaine started to find its way in in play and the people who were involved in the weed smuggling business started to
turn more to cocaine. Bible chosen not to get involved in the slightest way and remember a few of the sayings he said and there was one particular one. It was never trust the three T's. The three T's were never talk on the telephone because
obviously the DEA have unlimited access to tap in phone calls. Never send a text because all messages in interception is basically, you know, covered. And never tell a woman because what sometimes you can tell someone in the spare of the
moment, it can end up actually getting you in a life sentence.
part of was the Eastern Caribbean Cartel. An Eastern Caribbean cartel sits in a cluster of the Caribbean islands and the coast of South America. Cocaine, you either purchase it from as close to source as possible, in which case, you
know, it comes in from one of the islands or you buy it from corrupt naros police who are supposed to incinerate it. But labs generally aren't all mega
labs. They're smaller labs, okay, that produce a certain amount, 100 a week, 50 a week. It's not as it's made out to be in films like Scarface. What happens is if you wanted a consignment, say you wanted half a ton, 500 kilos. It' come
together from three, four, four people and those people basically wouldn't even have to go to Colombia. You could purchase straight from Colombia, but obviously you are involved in the process of having to pay FARC who make
sure it gets safely down the waterways. You know, you've got a whole process of crossing across again over the border to Venezuela to the jump of point. Back then you could buy what they call paste, which is in Colombia, the rawest form of
cocaine approximately $600 a kilo. And then from the case, it goes through a process of different chemicals and then you get it where EH is applied to the raw product and you're probably getting cocaine back then for around $900 US a
kilo. And then obviously you pay for the transportation as it crosses various transportation as it crosses various borders. I would never ever cross to Colombia because instantly you're blown up on the DEA um you know watch list. So
I would travel to Guyana. I would travel to Venezuela reluctantly. Where I would tend to go would be Tobago because Tobago obviously sits right beside those islands but it potentially wasn't on the DEA watch list as much as the others two
were. They're red red flag countries, you know, even though Trinidad now is one of the most red flag countries there there is.
So most of the shipments either come um by vessel or they come by plane. So the by vessel or they come by plane. So the generally speaking um ships take between 12 and 14 days to Holland or wherever you want to go to in Europe depends on
what rate of fuel they burn. It'll come in what they call dry containers or refrigerated containers. One thing people fail to realize is that the easiest way to smuggle drugs or any form of contraband is simply by running along
the same side as a route that runs every single day, which is a normal, you know, produce or product. Perishable goods, fruit and veg, are a key product to import. If they're left too long hanging around, they're going to go rotten. So,
these goods are usually cleared very, very quickly. In UK customs, we have a series of what they call routes. So, for an example, there's route one, which is all documentation to be checked, and that could maybe take 24 hours for a
cargo to be cleared. You've got route two, which is a physical inspection, unpacked. But with companies that have been running for a long period of time, they fall under called something called route six, which is instant clearance.
So unless someone phones up the, you know, the cops and says there's definitely drugs on there, that shipment will literally be cleared straight through customs. No questions asked. For a great number of years, Splitterfields
and comment guided market imported fruit and veg from virtually every producing country in the world. you know, making contact with them as long as I could guarantee that when products were coming in for the people who they worked for, I
could definitely get it off at this end without the actual owner of the company being any the wiser. So, that was a system we started to use. I remember there was a very popular hot sauce brand and it used to come in boxes like that
of usually 12 or 24 crated and then they would go into brand cardboard boxes. But we had a wholesaler in Holland with weed who literally used to take 20 foot containers of full of them. And of course we had syrup. And ironically uh
we had a really bad turnout one day because we had a container loaded. It was about I think it was close to maybe 4 and a half metric tons of weed in it. And uh it never rains in Jamaica. On this particular day when the container
was being moved to be shipped, it rained and it rained really really heavily. And one of the uh guys who was working on the docks decided he was going to pick up that container and move it. Put his foot down, broke into a skid. Of course,
the container was up there on this raft. It then fell and it was like the gates of hell as it hit the unforgiving concrete floor. All dropped out. Was tons upon tons of these packages of weed.
It looked like a sea of blood. Basically, the red syrup inward of rain. It was literally looked like a horror film. the cocaine. The reason why it enough customs offices or border force
in the world to check every single piece of cargo. I remember years ago, we used to build false walls at the back of the containers, you know, foot and a half from the back wall. We'd build this false wall. We'd get some pot rivets.
We'd put them in vinegar to make them go rusty. And we'd basically put them back in and fill the back of the container with weed or cocaine, whatever was necessarily needed. It meant that by the time to get in there, they'd have to
obviously unload all the cargo from it. But of course, then came the um the the uh the measurable pen where they could just stick it in there and go bang, foot in the back of that wall. That was a very simple, you know, frame of
technology that changed it. And then, of course, the refrigerator container, you it. And when you remove that and look inside the fridge, it's like a huge circle, a hole that gets filled with product. There's been occasion sometimes
things go wrong. I remember one incident where someone had done plantans, you know, and what had happened was um the planters had come through and a woman, she went and bought a box. She went in the back of her car and was feeling them
and they were tough. She went back to the store holder and she's gone, "These are rubbish. I want my money back." And he what you're talking about and he's feeling it and think and he's hit it against the desk and it's just covered
in white powder like a snowman, right? It's like, you know, full of cocaine. A It's like, you know, full of cocaine. A week later, a guy, he's turned up, he's week later, a guy, he's turned up, he's got a brand spanking new Mercedes van.
saying like he wants to buy a like a pallet, right? And he's like he buys like a two boxes at a time. So obviously what happened was he's bought a few boxes full of cocaine and he's hit the jackpot and he's [laughter] thinking I'm
going to keep doing it. And that used to happen a lot. So people randomly would end up buying their produce for their shop, going back to their business, and shop, going back to their business, and then lifting a lid. It's full of drugs.
then lifting a lid. It's full of drugs. Moving crime is when you then move into actually paying the people who are supposed to be policing this stuff which are the customs and border force. So
are the customs and border force. So from country of origin in Jamaica you from country of origin in Jamaica you would have to pay obviously the customs would have to pay obviously the customs in that country. Okay. save $400,000 for
a container full of cocaine to leave that country of origin. And that would entail paying the broker who would do the paperwork, the customs officers who would be handling the clearance of the container. He would maybe involve the
dog handler and those would be your team abroad. Shipping full stop is abroad. Shipping full stop is international business. However, every it does from its country of origin is allocated a number. So, if they're given
flag on it because it's going to be inspected here. When they then put it going to X-ray it. Now, a human can override it by they will identify to go
for X-ray. And then the route goes from them to the um X-ray team. X-ray team again, they're paid and they're brought into the system. They then do their paper clearance to say it's been x-rayed which allows a release to go on the
container. He then sends the transport company to collect the container. Container is then delivered and then driven during the night usually because obviously the time that the market opens if it's in the market down to the
market. And when it's taken to the market then it's broken down and taken where it has to be taken to a safe house or a slaughter as we call it. And then during the process of time it's distributed.
drugs particularly cocaine the UK it's a massive marketplace and when you import it in volumes you never really come in contact with the people who are actually
on the street or on the front line. So a shipment of half a ton would probably go to three people and you know that would be broken up in 200 keys, 200 keys and distribute it. They'd break it down to make 30 keys or 50 keys. Then those 50
keys goes down to five keys and those five keys then go down to single keys. And those single keys go down to you know four nine bars. And then four 9 oz bars then go down to ounces. And those answers then go down to single answer.
Those answers then turn into grams. that the system with narco economy runs in different ways and different spaces. One of the spaces is the social dealer and I feel very responsible for the birth of the social dealer. It started with
ecstasy. During that period, the second summer of love, people thought it was acceptable to go and get a few pills for their friends. They'll start getting 100 pills, sell them in a week, and then suddenly they lose their job. Suddenly
their mortgage or their rent with the money from drugs. Then they're a class A drugs dealer and that was the birth of the social drug dealer which then turned the social drug dealer which then turned into cocaine.
lifeblood of the business. Things are different now because people use cryptocurrency, but back then it was always cash. And the methods usually used were pretty much, you know, seen in plain sight. One of them I used to use
very large business basically used to import lries. We used to firstly buy lries for him here in which case we put them on the ship and then he'd pay for the vehicle when it got to that end. We pay our people but also we used to
actually open parts of the vehicle, load it with money basically and then weld it back. When that money got back to the island Jamaica, it sold on the black island Jamaica, it sold on the black market. So basically money it the more
you make the bigger things you find to invest in. So when you start this kind of business what you find yourself is the glitzy stuff we call it okay the shiny stuff. It's about the jewelry. It's about the watches. It's about the
cars. It's about stuff you want to say you've got a status. But then when you ladder a little bit and you think you suddenly want to start to invest. You things that you think are quite glamorous. nightclubs and these things
are like bottomless pits. They hemorrhage money if you're not on top of them. However, the Reddit is this. When it all goes wrong, everything goes because it's all traceable. I had lots of different investments. I invested
across real estate. I invested across property developments. And I wasted a lot of money on, you know, opportunities or business investments, you know, or business investments, you know, couldn't even sustain themselves.
and more and more violent particularly cocaine people I've done business with I've seen you know being killed in the most horrendous ways introduced me to a guy called Blacka Ducha was what they call a dawn for an area in
Dante and Kingston he had leverage at the docks at the airports he was assassinated him and two other guys you know in broad daylight fight. Two, three know in broad daylight fight. Two, three guys drove down into constituency which
um was controlled by another guy who was described as a dawn, Willie Huggot. They which they thought was a plane closed police because plane closed police in Jamaica wear white shirts and generally drive tried to coroller vehicles and
they literally just got out with AK-47s and shuttle through them to pieces. Another guy I used to work with, he was shot in the head, put into the back of a, you know, burning car. Another guy I knew, a guy walked into a restaurant
where he was in trouble of people in a crash helmet and started firing. He got a bullet in the neck. You know, these were just a few incidents. When you're in this business, you're in it and you can't see the wood beyond the trees. So,
what comes with it is all this stuff. A lot of people who are involved in the smuggling business in Jamaica didn't want to get involved in the cocaine industry because they saw firsthand what it done to people. However, there were
people who had no consideration for it. And that introduced a ruthless element and with it came bloodshed. And when you talk about people, you know, who are Jamaica, there's guys in Jamaica that
could scare paint off a building. So there's people out there that don't fear couldn't count how many people they've killed because one famous saying was, you know, if you got an Uzi and you're
firing down an alleyway, you're not counting.
even from the labs sometimes it isn't pure and people get it from there and around Peru in these regions sometimes better quality is coming from there. It's really strange because I've never sold a product I haven't taken. Hence
I've never sold heroin. I've taken cocaine. I've taken ecstasy. I've smoked marijuana. But one ironic thing is when I've actually been involved in smuggling them I haven't wanted to use them. Quality is the most important thing.
Like anything with drugs, if you buy something cheap, it's not going to last something cheap, it's not going to last and it's difficult to sell. My strategy that I took on board was stack them high and sell them cheap. So, I'd buy the
best but buy lots of it and sell it cheap. People talk about, you know, uh pink Peruvian champagne and all these other stuff. What people struggle to other stuff. What people struggle to realize is the reason why these forms of
because they're unable to get the chemicals. They'll use substitute chemicals for it. You know, the easiest way of telling good cocaine it's oil. let it dissolve if it's good. You know, you should be able to the sight and
smell should straight away let you know the quality. smuggling. A lot in the early days was done by plane, baggage handers, things
like that. Of course, you could always do big consignments in the cargo areas. really done by containers because these were hugely profitable. If it's coming through the airport, it's coming in smaller quantities. However, you still
got to pay a series of people. You have to have a check-in assistant who's going to obviously have the dog handler who's going to obviously let that go through. going on from that point, if it's going to be an X-ray and they turn a blind eye
to the X-ray, they've got to be paid. Me and my business partner are at in Jamaica and we've stayed at the Windham Hotel. But during that period of time, the English cricket team were actually touring the West Indies to play. They
were there sitting by the pool with us. And we're watching every single day these big flight cases with the cricket bats coming in and out. and was sitting there thinking those flight cases are not going to be
those flight cases are not going to be checked. So what we'd done is we'd teed it up with one of the guys who was at the hotel that we'd be able to access those flight cases and pack them with cocaine. The only problem we then had
cocaine. The only problem we then had was Jamaica wasn't the last test. So thought there's got to be another system. And one of the guys that came
out there to meet us, he happened to mention that there are certain things them was computer screens. And we thought, hold on, if they can't be you can probably put anything in them you want. And of course, what we had was
a really good contact in Venezuela who actually was involved in computer parts. And over a period of 6 months, we just gradually became a steady importer of computer scrims for Venezuela. Of course, this helped us considerably with
cash flow for events and all the other stuff we were doing within the computer screens. We had created a balloon which was packed with cocaine. Some of the ones we' used over the years were suitcases and one in particular one was
the body which we called the stiff. I'd noticed that someone had actually tried noticed that someone had actually tried to send a body um with a coffin full with drugs in it, but they failed because it was randomly opened at the
airport. Of course, that problem wasn't going to have because we had our people who worked at the airport. In Jamaica, it was quite easy to get access to people like, you know, who knows someone. So, getting a doctor was real
simple. Um the biggest thing was obviously being able to get the example, you knew a guy he was a drug addict or if he's alcoholic, he'd sell you his passport for 500 quid. So the
picture just could be simply cut, lifted, put whatever picture you want in it and went into the Jamaican High Commission to tell him he died. The doctor we had, we paid him a few hundred. He issued a death certificate.
Of course, you know, no sight of body, nobody existed. took the death certificate up to the high commission with the passport and subsequently got access to ship the body over. And of course once we had the shipping
arrangements put in place we had a local undertakers who reverently retrieved the body from the airplane and that was one incident.
music dominantly reggae and soul and I set up a sand system with couple of friends from my road. What was the turning point was the winter of 1988. We came across a huge warehouse. Paid the guy would been the equivalent of
the guy would been the equivalent of maybe $800 at night for for the venue and started to stage parties. By New Year's Eve, the events were being flooded by celebrities. People like Boy George, Mini Vanil, top ranking artists
were turning up to party and enjoy themselves. And that was a massive launch pad for a company I'd put together called Genesis. When you're putting on parties of that scale, you tend to meet a lot of people and you
seem to climb a pecking order in Britain's underworld. Night life and gangsters go together. When the parties seemed to be coming to an end under pressure from police raids, the drug economy was becoming massive. Ecstasy
was a drug which in Holland it was legal until 1988. It was illegal here earlier under the misuse of drug act, but people were still relatively flexible about the drug. In Britain, tablets were sell up to £25, you know, a single pill and they
could be wholesaliled for up to 20. And that time they were being bought in Holland for around about 12 or£13. But as demand came more and more and more and more people took them, the price started to drop. Eventually I
could buy pills in Holland for £3 a tablet and I could get them here and actually wholesale them anywhere between6 and8 a tablet by the,000. So there were huge profit margins and every£10,000 you're making £30,000 or
£50,000. things were, you know, going like clockwork. But like all the best laid plans, eventually something will go wrong. One morning I received the phone call. Someone said to me, uh, you know,
there's a serious incident at what I call a safe house. They said, uh, basically the police were all over it. So in January 1992, via a false passport, I was on the run and I landed in Jamaica.
to keep low. Unfortunately, I didn't know what the word low profile meant. I know what the word low profile meant. I was introduced to a circuit of people of quite high society Jamaican and I met a young lady whose father was a prominent
Jamaican politician. Uh she fell pregnant and during this time while I was seeing her, she fell pregnant. I also met another young lady who
instantly took my breath away, Miss Jamaica Weld. I also ended up having a child with her, which I have two beautiful sons as a result of. But of course, I put myself from a lowprofile character into the front page of
Jamaican news. So, imagine it. I'm 25 years old and I'm trying my hardest to years old and I'm trying my hardest to go straight. Me being me, the marriage fell apart and you know I found myself on a road to chaos. I got myself into a
on a road to chaos. I got myself into a fight, ended up in a Jamaican prison and as luck would have it, have family that could help influence situations and managed to bribe my way out of there. Around about 1997,
Around about 1997, um I finally put the dots together. I was around my friends again, people I'd grown up with. A lot of those guys had now climbed a criminal ladder. Naturally, Jamaica was a producing
Naturally, Jamaica was a producing country where cannabis grows. So, Bible, my mentor, he had an amazing list of contacts and they trusted him because he was a very superior figure. He was able
to at least give me the protection that I needed. Barb introduced me to a guy called Blackadoo. He showed me how the mechanics worked of the business. You know, we take drives down to the country, which would be like St.
Elizabeth, where weed is grown, and farmers then would come with their harvest of weed. The stuff would be taken, it would be bagged, it would be obviously weighed and then paid for. Then camp, makeshift camps would be set
up in what we call the bush. So, we used to be out there and people basically would set up two pieces of railroad track which would create a press in the middle of it. Special metal plates were made and big tarpolons were put on the
floor. Women would take sharp little knives, manicure the weed, taking out the seeds, separating the seeds from the buds. They were all then put into these um um presses, these blocks, and then compressed down. Then they were wrapped
with various sheets of um you know cellophane and then we put what we call dog repellent on them which was made of leaves of different trees and then the tri the weed was then transported down into central Kingston where it would be
leaving from. It was a very very profitable business. So on average you could purchase the best marijuana for around $70 a kilo. Once it gets back to
England, the same weed would fetch anywhere up to $3,000 a pound. So the profit margins was huge, even larger if you look on the scale of it than
cocaine, getting the product in consignments down from the country into ship from. That would usually be done on a on a cane rafter. Police did stop it randomly. They're certainly not going to unload with sugarcane sometimes with
ambulances. So we'd obviously pay an ambulance driver and he would basically put it on. He'd basically blue light it all the way down. Even police we used to used to drive it down. You know, it was a very smuggler friendly uh place when I
a very smuggler friendly uh place when I lived there. but doing something that you are passionate about doing was really
important to me. And having grown up in a sand system culture and I'd done warehouse parties, but one thing I hadn't done, I hadn't done major concerts or festivals and the jewel in the cran for any reggae enthusiast was
reggae sunsplash that I just might be able to achieve bringing it back to the able to achieve bringing it back to the UK. So in 1999, we put on one of the most amazing events ever seen. But again, unfortunately, being the person I
am and the business we were running had a lot of attention drawn to it. In visit us at the office, some of these people were on the police radar. There was one particular individual who was having stolen cars, taking apart, and
exporting them. And he used to have some beautiful cars he'd bring by to the office on occasion. And ironically, workless Jean was headlining the reggae son special event and we had one of our drivers driving him around in the
vehicle when he was here which of course unbeknown to us was a stolen car. One morning the serious crime squad decided to crash my house when I was in bed. Uh to crash my house when I was in bed. Uh they arrived and subsequently they
discovered that vehicle on the drive. They also discovered um a number of different um documents basically related to stolen cars and they also discovered a small quantity of drugs. I was arrested and obviously I was back to
square one again. But as luck would have it, I'd realized they'd actually released me from bail and they hadn't charged me. By the beginning of November that year, I'm back in Jamaica. I plunged myself deeply into the world of
smuggling. So, as much as I have passions for other things, every single time I done them to levels of success, smuggling would always represent itself back into my life and basically destroy whatever positive attributes I had
whatever positive attributes I had started. worked with in the underworld and he came to me and said that he had access
to a team of officers who were clearing containers. And at first obviously I was very sort of you know that doesn't seem right. How do you get a whole team? Did seem like a bit too good to be true. And what had happened was um a guy who had a
former military background, special units, people who are trained in you know um high levels SAS, people like that are sometimes given jobs with the individual would actually been offered a job with what they call a ghost unit in
customs and excise. And the job he was entitled to do was actually look out for corrupt customs officers. Rather than collecting the evidence obviously and taking it to his superiors, he approached them directly and said to the
officers who he had information on, I've got this on you and this is the deal. This either goes to the superior and you're going to probably end up in jail you're going to probably end up in jail or face charges or be sacked or if you
want I can show you how to work and you work with me by getting access to these officers who he was investigating. He had obviously access now to us which was an organized crime group. So he facilitated himself as the overall
fixer. So what would happen is he'd charge a million pounds a container that was a flat rate regardless of what was in the container. He'd be give us specific instructions of what we'd have to do. We want x amount of money up
front which was only a small holding deposit £100,000 and then after that all the balance must be paid within 48 hours of receiving a container. Now, a million pounds or 1.5 million US could have seemed like quite a lot of money to some
people, but when you're talking about bringing in drugs, you're talking about tiny money, it's pittance. We started to organize something. We put on, you know, I think it was like 500 kilos of cocaine on the first shipment and bang, cleared
on the first shipment and bang, cleared it. Came straight through. Not an issue. And it was like it's real. It it works. Give us the um container number as soon as it leaves the country of origin. So we had a code we created which was
numbers and letters which was sort of done in reverse. And then once the container then was ready for release, we had to go and normal procedure with paperwork and he'd then contact our guy and that guy would say it's ready to
and that guy would say it's ready to collect. So now we'd discovered and had access to the best thing in the world. You were given an opportunity to ship what you want in any quantity you want, you know, clean as a whistle. And one of
you know, clean as a whistle. And one of the team I worked with an associate. At this point I said, listen, we stop everything and we just specifically do everything and we just specifically do this. But what happened was he actually
was putting himself around and offering services to a lot of other people. Now understand in the east end of London and Essex and Kent as well, you've got a lot of groups of people who are prolific smugglers who are also working through
the market. He had actually been working with a team and they were bringing in pineapples but in disguise. So, they've been hollowing out the pineapples, putting cocaine in there, sealing them with wax, putting them back, and
basically sending them over. But the police were actually looking at this uh group of people. So, one of my associates that work at the market, he was under surveillance because he'd been working with his team from Essex. So,
tapped. They were on regular surveillance. In December 2004, a surveillance. In December 2004, a container carrying 584 kgs of cocaine concealed in saxus coconuts arrived at Spitfield's market. When the container
arrived with the produce in it, I called him. I said, "It's cleared. It's ready to collect." Anyway, his phones was under surveillance. Customs was thinking, "Hold on, how can it be cleared when these pineapples are
still on the water?" So they had absolutely no idea whatsoever about the co the coconut shipment. The officers who were investigating the pineapples after hearing the container had been cleared drove down to the docks. So
randomly they decided to pull the container. They opened the container and half a ton of cocaine literally fell out the back onto them all. If they were to have arrested the customs officers,
suspended them or investigated in any way whatsoever, which they should have done, we instantly would had a loophole. But not only us having a loophole, every single container that had gone through there with drugs in it and everyone that
had been arrested for those drugs over years, all those people that were in prison serving time for it would have meant every single case would have had an appeal because the evidence that they'd given in court couldn't have been
trusted. They were told to turn the blind eye and send us to collect it. The following evening we went to the market. By this time the cocaine had been
By this time the cocaine had been replaced with blocks of wood. Um the all the blocks of wood now were in the were in the in the container. customs pounced and everyone was arrested and it was basically a cut and dry case
because for all intents and purposes they made the biggest seizure at the they made the biggest seizure at the time of cocaine in in London. There'd never been a seizure of that size ever before. And you know, we were carted off
before. And you know, we were carted off to prison um awaiting obviously trial.
Myself and six codefendants have all been arrested and we're all now locked been arrested and we're all now locked up on remand at Wsworth Prison. for being knownly concerned in impulation of 584 kg of cocaine. So basically it
wasn't looking good. I remember when I um saw my solicitor come to visit me in a prison. I said to him, you know, I said it's, you know, it's a bad corner. I know it's a bad corner. You know, how's it looking? He said,
as long as you got a hole in your ass, I can get out of this one. So basically the evidence against us was four years of surveillance coming from the DEA, Interpol, Serious Crime Directive 7, uh
Interpol, Serious Crime Directive 7, uh Metro Middle Market um uh police and regional crime squad. There virtually wasn't an intelligence source that hadn't been gathering information on us over a period of years which had been
compiled into public interest immunity. They had in the police lock up over 500 kg of pure cocaine. They had an abundance of, you know, um, cash, other
things they'd managed to seize from the raids which they conducted straight after. It put bluntly was not looking good. So I was approached in prison by another inmate who said to me he had access to a corrupt officer that was
aware of the case and he had access to all my case documents. So the same corrupt officer was prepared for a quart of million pounds to go into customs of million pounds to go into customs house go into the safe under a different
identity and steal all the documents. I was then slipped these documents in prison. So what I realized as soon as I saw them, they were all highly sensitive intelligent service documents. I thought to myself, this could be my golden
ticket. All I had to do was find a method of devising bringing these documents into the court to cause enough of a benefit of that. So imagine these documents, my legal team couldn't see them. The only person who actually was
allowed them was the judge and the prosecution. I managed to get him into court and literally cause bedum. All bets were off. It caused complete madness. The judge was going ballistic, but it created enough confusion to force
but it created enough confusion to force a retrial. There's a retrial. Of course, this won't fall for the same trick twice. So, I'm searched before I go into court, but I've preempted that's going to happen and arranged a pirate radio
station broadcast the contents of the documents on the station. second retrial, all seven of us acquitted. So May 2007, I'm released from custody, you
know, taken a different direction in my life. My son Hayden is born, and now I'm ready to go straight and live a normal life. But as they say, the road to hell it was time to go back to the music industry. Wasn't really getting me the
same kind of financial gains that drug smuggling was getting me. So, I got back involved in the business. I made a lot of money in a very short period of time. That's where it all started to go wrong. Someone I knew who was a local guy to
me. I lent some money to help him out of a situation and unfortunately he'd been under police surveillance. There was no hope of me getting my money back. I was shipment but wanted to be nowhere near
it. On the day of this product arriving, I was told I had to go with him to collect it. Now, I'm coming from the old school of gangsters, so I agreed I'll do it. But this is the arrangement. If police turn up or come anywhere near
police turn up or come anywhere near you, what I'll do is I'll be behind you and then any police stopping you or trying to stop you, I'll take them out the road and you just carry on driving, take off and get rid of the gear. But
unbeknown to me, he'd been a police magnet. So he was either doing one of two things. He was either giving information deliberately to the police, but more likely I felt he had the idea of taking drugs off of people and then
getting arrested. So all he had to do was lead the police straight to him. The most bizarre thing was when the police did put on their sirens and I done what I said I was going to do and decided to take my Range Rover and force them off
of the road. He just literally slows down and pulls up with 6 kg of cocaine in the back seat. So there I am, arrested, track record, been acquitted of 500 kilos plus seven years earlier, and I'm
centered now with driving a police car off of the road with drugs in that car. It ain't looking good. After two trials in 2014, I end up getting 15 years and
in 2014, I end up getting 15 years and become a category prisoner. reality. But when I faced reality, I was at Bel Marsh prison and I could see all
these young guys and I saw them doing huge sentences. Their lives were wasted. And the realization came to me. They're killing each other on the streets. And were people who done everything they could to build communities. And for all
these years, I'd been destroying them for my own self-gratification for things which I thought was so important to have possessions. And the realization came to it. You know, I had blood on my hands. So my mission in life
had to be how can I do something to rectify some of the I've done in my life and turn stuff around and allow my conscience finally to become my guide. People get arrested and they say, "Ah, poor
me." And they start to feel sorry for themselves, but they don't give consideration for the victims. I never gave consideration for any victims. I gave consideration for any victims. I asked myself the question, would I want
any of my children to go down this road? The answer is no. But more importantly, would I want anyone else's child to go down this road? And the answer to that is no. In 2019, I was finally released from prison and started the AP
Foundation. The most important thing for me was to be able to put my life down in words. To let people be able to read on it and reflect on it, not as a vanity
on it and reflect on it, not as a vanity project, but to serve as a lesson, to serve as something to understand that when it all comes to the end, when it turns the final chapter, was it all worth it? And the answer to that is no.
You have to go on a journey. sometimes, but the in destination sometimes or most times isn't quite what you thought it would be. So, I wrote my autobiography, Empire of Dirt, to explain and understand what it is. When it comes
down to it, you're just building an empire of dirt. It has no substance or real value compared to the value of people, relationships.
shipping cocaine is container ships. But it's not just limited to container ships. What the biggest one they do is the deep sea fisher fishing tankers. So they'll bring those in huge nets. They'll be full of gear. They'll put a
uh like the satnav thing that they use for the ship and they'll drop them. And then what happens is they drop them on the coast and then the smaller fishing trollers around these areas talking about will go in and retrieve them. Subs
have been going for a long while now for as long as actually I can remember from the 90s. you know, go fast boats are still very much in use. You know, um to still very much in use. You know, um to do the short runs, um you know, all the
traditional methods, uh diving ships is very common where people put what we call torpedo at the bottom of it, which is a large package of drugs and then divers go in to retrieve it after it's survived. Prices will only go down if
there's a bigger supply and a bigger demand. And prices have dropped considerably. Seizures now are bigger than they used to be. So perhaps we have than they used to be. So perhaps we have a very small idea of what actually is
getting through to what it really really is. So we're moving away from where half a ton was a lot of drugs. We're talking about shipments of 5 10 tons now coming
through on a very regular basis and getting caught. I think what's going on at the moment with fast boats being attacked and people being shot on them, it's something obviously which is done for a scare tactic. But people have to
realize this for someone to get on a fast boat with four 250 Yamaha engines fast boat with four 250 Yamaha engines and a massive tank of petrol on it
filled with cocaine. You're pretty desperate in the first place. So the people that are getting shot here and getting killed are people at the very bottom of the ladder. They're very easily replaced. So it's not going to
stop anything. Drugs could be, and I say this as a form of drugs, a scourge on society because when you honestly look what it does to people, it destroys them. But it doesn't just kill them. It's what dies inside of them
when they're alive. We should actually look and say to ourselves, maybe we should spend a bit more time and money researching it. Maybe some drugs should be legalized. Maybe some drugs should be looked at, you know, the purposes some
drugs do have. For example, marijuana to help people with asthma and other conditions. We now know it helps in cancer in some cases and situations. Maybe we should rethink it. Everyone wants to find themselves in the
marketplace. Okay? You know, mainland Turkey was obviously a dominant place of heroin. We all know this. Now, the relationship obviously with cocaine relationship obviously with cocaine being exchanged for heroin and you know,
Turkish syndicates having more influence as in Albanian syndicates having more influence. So, the dynamics changes every so often and it will be different in another five years. Kids are on the street dying, you know, for washed rock
line. And there are guys out there going to prison for selling grams. But when Middle England and the society that turns around and gives out these big sentences stop making those phone calls
after dinner because they want a social gram for the dinner party. And when that stops, that's when we can start to look about stopping the problem. But it's supply and demand. Upper class people have glamorized cocaine to make it
something that poor people want. And what's the real shame is the people who what's the real shame is the people who really are at the helm of giving out huge sentences to the people who are the kids who are probably selling drugs um
you know um to put some food on the the basic bits and pieces that they want. Not necessarily. So all of them, but a lot of them they're in caught in a poverty belt are delivering the cocaine
to upper class, middle class people who are a lot of them are in the criminal justice system as lawyers. A lot of them are accountants. A lot of them are high, you know, level jobs making a lot of money and it's amusement for them. But
every gram of cocaine they put up their nose is blood that they are putting on the street with kids who are fighting over those deals, who are fighting over those turfs. Hi, I'm a producer on How Crime Works.
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