Drug Dealer’s Doggy Snapshot Cracks £45m MDMA Smuggling Ring
Danny Brown, 55, handed police a golden lead by sending a snap of his dog, Bob, on the encrypted chat app EncroChat. The photo revealed his partner’s phone number on the pup’s tag, helping National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators nail Brown and his gang trying to smuggle 448 kilos of MDMA worth £45 million to Australia.
Selfies and Secret Auctions Blow Gang’s Cover
Brown, operating as ‘throwthedice’, and co-conspirator Stefan Baldauf, 62, weren’t exactly careful. They accidentally sent selfies showing their faces and surroundings, giving detectives more proof they were behind the drug plot. The gang hid the Class A drugs inside the arm of a £75,000 industrial digger, shipping the massive Doosan DX420 to Australia under the guise of a legitimate sale.
To make the dodgy deal look legit, the gang even rigged an online auction in Sydney, setting up fake bids to hide the drugs’ arrival. When other buyers showed interest, panic set it. “There are six people watching it,” messaged gang member Leon Reilly. Brown’s reply? “F***ing hell, that’s not good is it.”
Operation Venetic: EncroChat Takedown Exposes Organised Crime
After EncroChat was shut down in 2020, the National Crime Agency launched Operation Venetic. They cracked the encrypted messages, exposing crime bosses like Brown, Baldauf, and Reilly. The gang communicated using aliases, unaware their phones were tapped. Brown’s reflection in a TV photo and Baldauf’s face reflected in a door sign helped pin their real identities.
The NCA unearthed how Philip Lawson, 61, designed the hidey-hole in the digger’s arm, cutting and lead-lining it to stash the MDMA. The drugs were discovered by Australian Border Force, who X-rayed the digger, replaced the stash with tracking devices, and monitored the auction house in Sydney.
Jail Time for Drug Lords
The gang’s plot collapsed when two Australian OCG members failed to find the drugs, sparking frantic EncroChat messages as the UK gang bickered over a possible thief. Brown and Baldauf were arrested in Putney, South West London, with Brown still clutching his Encro phone.
In June, the ringleaders were convicted at Kingston Crown Court. Brown got a hefty 26 years, Baldauf 28, and Reilly 24. Others involved, including Lawson, Murray, and Borg, received sentences between 15 and 24 years.
Chris Hill, NCA operations manager, said: “These men thought they were safe on EncroChat but my officers did a superb and painstaking job of building the evidence against them through a mixture of traditional and modern detective skills.
“Brown and Baldauf’s accidental selfies and the photo of Bob the dog were the cherry on the cake in proving who was operating those handles.
“But the OCG went to enormous lengths, even rigging an auction, in a bid to transfer the drugs to Australian conspirators.
“The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from the dangers of Class A drugs which wreak so much misery on communities in the UK.”
