Drug gang’s smug selfies and pet pics blow £45m MDMA smuggling plot
‘Throwthedice’ and the dog that busted him
Danny Brown, 55, thought he could dodge the law by using EncroChat under the alias ‘throwthedice’. But it was a simple photo of his pet dog, ‘Bob’, sent to fellow criminal Stefan Baldauf, 62, that helped the National Crime Agency nail him. The duo were plotting to ship a whopping 448 kilos of MDMA worth £45 million to Australia.
Investigators zoomed in on Brown’s phone number and scoured every message in their painstaking probe, ultimately proving his role in the conspiracy. Bob was even present when Brown was finally arrested.
Drug-packed digger shipped Down Under
The gang didn’t stop there. Brown and Baldauf, along with Leon Reilly, 50, smuggled the drugs hidden inside the arm of a 40-tonne industrial Doosan excavator. The digger was sent to Australia under the guise of an online auction, rigged with a pre-arranged bid to fool buyers.
- “There are six people watching it,” warned Reilly in an EncroChat message.
- Brown replied: “F***ing hell, that’s not good is it.”
The muscle behind the operation was a savvy organised crime group (OCG), who used a welding trick to hide the Class A drugs behind a lead lining inside the digger’s arm.
EncroChat selfies seal their fate
The crooks accidently sent selfies showing their faces—a blunder investigators used to link their EncroChat aliases to the real men. Brown’s reflection was caught in a TV screen photo, while Baldauf’s appeared on a brass door sign.
After months of investigations revealing the full extent of their plot, the gang was finally arrested. Brown got 26 years, Baldauf 28, and Reilly 24 at Kingston Crown Court in June.
Operation Venetic cracks encrypted crime ring
The NCA’s Operation Venetic, launched after EncroChat’s 2020 takedown, uncovered messages once thought secure from law enforcement. The criminals’ attempts to get the evidence thrown out of court failed, and the convictions stand.
Chris Hill, NCA operations manager, said: “These men thought they were safe on EncroChat, but our officers did a superb job using both traditional and modern detective work. Brown and Baldauf’s accidental selfies and that dog photo were the cherry on the cake.”
He added: “The OCG went to enormous lengths—including rigging an auction—to smuggle these drugs to Australia. The NCA continues working with partners worldwide to crack down on Class A drugs that devastate communities.”
More than £3.7 million in cash and assets has been seized from this ruthless gang by the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.
