Brian Brendan Wright (born c.1947)[1] is an Irish[2] criminal, who was raised in Kilburn, London[3],involved in fixing horse races by doping more than 20 race horses in 1990,[4] and trafficking tonnes of cocaine from the Medellín Cartel into Great Britain over a period of two years, amassing up to a £600 million fortune. Originally based in Britain, he had been out of the country when authorities began arresting members of his organisation (including his own son, Brian Jr, and former son-in-law, Paul Shannon) as the result of a six-year investigation resulting from the capture of a converted fishing trawler, the Sea Mist, after Irish customs officials discovered 599 kg of cocaine while docked at Cork, Ireland in September 1996.
Brian Brendan Wright | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1947 (age 76–77) |
| Criminal penalty | 30 years in prison |
Eventually relocating to northern Cyprus, he purchased a £300,000 villa near occupied Lapithos in the name of a Turkish Cypriot friend and, by 1998, his organization operated freely as the northern Cyprus government is recognized only by Turkey and thus has no extradition treaties with any other country.
In 2002, British authorities announced the capture of a leading member of his organisation, South African drug trafficker Hilton John Van Staden, who eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle drugs into the country, with customs officials claiming the destruction of Wright's organisation.
In April 2005, he was arrested by police in Sotogrande, Spain.[5]
On 2 April 2007, after an 11-year investigation, he was found guilty of running an international cocaine smuggling empire.[6] The following day, he was sentenced to 30 years and, according to his lawyers, had accepted he will die in prison.[7] Wright was a friend of celebrity comedian Jim Davidson, partly owning one of Davidson's horses.[8]
In April 2020 after serving 15 years of his sentence Wright was released. After his release the British Horseracing Authority issued statements about his continuing ban from horse racing.[9]
References
edit- ^ Campbell, Duncan (4 July 2019). "Inside the 21st-century British criminal underworld". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
in 2007, at the age of 60
- ^ "UK | England | London | Cocaine trafficking boss guilty". BBC News. 3 April 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ "Guilty: The Milkman - international cocaine smuggler who always delivered". The Guardian. 3 April 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
- ^ "Wright Warned Off for 20 Years". Buzzle.com. 13 December 2002. Archived from the original on 4 March 2003. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Something rotten in Marbella | Spero News". Speroforum.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ "UK | England | London | Cocaine trafficking boss guilty". BBC News. 3 April 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ "UK | England | London | Cocaine baron jailed for 30 years". BBC News. 3 April 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ "Programmes | Panorama | Brian Wright". BBC News. 4 October 2002. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ Cook, Chris (20 April 2020). "BHA issues warning after banned race-fixer Brian Wright leaves prison". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
External links
edit- Guardian Unlimited: Silence is golden for drug king by Tony Thompson
- Cyprus Mail: Suspected cocaine baron 'hiding in the north'
- Trinidad and Tobago News: UK Police Bust Huge Cocaine Smuggling Gang
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