Criminology and Psychology

Convicted drug smuggler Brian Brendon Wright was today ordered to pay a confiscation order of £2,311,371 following a hearing at Woolwich Crown Court. Wright, 61, who headed an international drugs smuggling gang, was jailed for 30 years in April 2007 having been found guilty of conspiracy to evade prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug and the conspiracy to supply drugs. His Honour Judge Peter Moss today told Wright that he would have to serve a consecutive 10 years default sentence if the money was not paid in 12 months.Robert Alder, Head of Restraint & Confiscation Unit, HM Revenue & Customs, Criminal Investigation Division, said: "The size of this Confiscation Order reflects Brian Brendon Wright's role at the very top of a global organised crime network that lived off the misery of the countless victims of the illegal drug trade. "Confiscation Orders like this ensure that career criminals such as Wright are denied the opportunity to profit from thei...

S imilarities were found by Customs investigators between a business which supplied boats to drug smugglers and a company set up by a Butterwick man, a court has been told. When the finances of Nautexco Marine, set up by Ian Rush, of Brand End Road, were examined in detail by an expert, it was revealed that Rush and the other business had shared suppliers in the UK and customers in Spain. Forensic accountant Jeremy Outen told Ipswich Crown Court, where Rush is on trial, that while he found no evidence of money laundering, there were concerns about four nautical agencies in Spain with which Nautexco Marine had dealt. Those businesses had been implicated, following an investigation into the affairs of the Lowestoft company Crompton Marine, in the supply of high speed, radar-evading boats to drug smugglers operating between North Africa and Spain. Crompton Marine had supplied boats to those agencies, said Mr Outen, before its owners Richard Davison and Ellen George, were arrested in Mar...