Drug traffickers identified after sending dog photo ordered to pay £1 million
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Two drug traffickers whose organised crime group were identified after one of the members sent a picture of his pet dog have been told to hand over more than £1 million, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said. Stefan Baldauf, 64, and Philip Lawson, 63, were part of an organised crime group that was brought to justice when the NCA led a takedown of encrypted messaging platform EncroChat in 2020.
The NCA said the group planned to send 448kg of amphetamine worth £45 million to Australian accomplices hidden in the arm of an excavator, but the plot fell apart when group member Danny Brown sent Baldauf a picture of his French bulldog Bob, with his partner’s phone number on its tag.
Investigators zoomed in on the number and used it, among other evidence, to prove Brown, 57, of Kings Hall Road, Bromley, south-east London, was part of the conspiracy. Baldauf, of Midhurst Road, Ealing, west London, also sent an image on EncroChat which showed his reflection in a brass door sign.
On Monday at Kingston Crown Court, Baldauf, who was jailed for 28 years in December 2022, was ordered to pay £1,007,637, the national law enforcement agency said. He has three months to hand the money over or will receive an extra seven years in jail.
Lawson, who designed the drugs hide in the digger and arranged a welder to cut it open and then seal the digger, was sentenced to 23 years, according to the NCA. He was ordered to pay £182,476. He also has three months to pay or will have three years added to his jail sentence.
