A reformed gangster, once dubbed Britain’s ‘biggest drug smuggler’ after cocaine worth £100million was found stuffed in coconuts, revealed how he was able to ship ‘more’ narcotics than cartel chief Pablo Escobar
Britain’s ‘biggest drug smuggler’ revealed how he managed to ship “more cocaine than Pablo Escobar” into the UK.
Reformed gangster Andrew Pritchard, 59, was once so powerful in the underworld he had an operation that flooded Europe with hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cocaine and cannabis. The ex-criminal said he used a litany of fake passports and had multiple customs, police officers and high ranking officials on his books, to help create an unrivalled smuggling network. Pritchard revealed what he used to disguise his illegal shipments to get them into the UK. He said: “Not even Pablo Escobar, at the height of his power had a facility like this running straight into the UK.”
Pritchard revealed that large shipments would be disguised using a range of methods with x-ray machines even being “turned off” for him.
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After slipping under the radar, Andrew was thrust into the public eye when he was arrested in 2004 after the largest drug seizure in UK history. A staggering £100M worth of cocaine was found outside Spitalfields market hidden in coconuts.
The country’s ‘biggest drug smuggler’ has revealed how he fell into the dark criminal world and what he did to become the notorious illegal substance boss, in a new book Empire of Dirt.
The ex-crime boss said his descent to drugs started when be became the “unlicensed conductor of the rave” at empty warehouses. He said: “By the end of the acid house era I noticed a dark, sinister side emerging. My mindset had changed, geared towards money and power with no consideration for the consequences. It was almost as if I were losing a part of my soul. He said he initially joined a group of criminals involved in the narcotics trade but built his own empire as “demand for ecstasy soared”.
Pritchard started to move 500,000 pills a month with a Dutch couple who ran a lab that processed up to a million ecstasy tablets per day. The Brit revealed his empire launched through a company importing crates of apples from The Netherlands which “provided the perfect camouflage for concealing ecstasy tablets”.
The Brit then progressed to shipping premium-grade cannabis and cocaine from Jamaica and South America to the UK and would use a range of tactics to bypass security. One of these included swapping tourist rum via a washroom assistant with bottles of pure liquid cocaine.
Another move he said was named ‘the Stiff’, which involved requesting permission to repatriate a friend’s body back to England through the British High Commission in Kingston. A death certificate would be given by a local Jamaican doctor and the coffin was replaced with what he dubbed “90 kilos of Jamaica’s finest”.
By this time, the operation had already been generating millions of pounds with shipping containers sent to contacts in Holland. He said: “By the turn of the millennium, Jamaica was churning out cannabis like it was going out of fashion, producing between 1500 to 2000 metric tons annually.”
His operation continued to expand and ran through corruption of customs officers, who would put the containers full of premium grade cannabis and cocaine “on hold”. They would allegedly then turn off the x-ray machines and issue a clearance certificate so they could continue to their destinations unopened.
During his criminal years, Pritchard spent much of his time in Jamaica and lived such a glamourous lifestyle he once married a Miss World contestant. Since 2001 he said all the trips he had taken to overseas countries were via false passports. Pritchard was arrested in 2004, as part of what was then Britain’s largest ever drugs bust. He was eventually acquitted after two jurys failed to reach a verdict.
The trial heard 86 customs officers were allegedly involved. While giving evidence, and unbeknown to his defence team, Pritchard produced secret classified documents from Customs House he had been sent detailing major corruption. Although the judge wouldn’t allow them into evidence, Andrew said it planted doubt in the jury’s mind.
Andrew was arrested again in November 2013 and later sentenced to 15 years in prison, along with a hefty confiscation order, for drug trafficking and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Following a successful appeal Andrew was eventually released in February 2019 on licence.
He said: “I made a promise to myself that no matter what the circumstances I would never return to crime out of respect for my family. I had lost my house, business, money and most of my possessions Any young person who listens to this today, the last thing I want them to do is think this is a road to go on, because it can seem glamourous, but it will end in death, destruction and misery.”
Andrew said he has been viewed by some in his family who have learnt of his past as a “Hackney Pablo Escobar figure” and “some kind of Don Corleone Godfather.” But he added: “My story, in places may appear glamorous, let it stand instead as a warning to any young person tempted to walk that road. Because the truth is far less seducitve. A life of crime is bleak, corrosive and unforgiving.” His book was released on Tuesday and is now available at major online retailers.
