A Birmingham drug gang leader’s lavish lifestyle from crime has been exposed after he was convicted for importing £135m of cocaine, heroin and ketamine into the UK. Jonathan Arnold, from Sutton Coldfield, lived in the lap of luxury showing off his new teeth from cosmetic surgery, a Rolex watch and a Ferrari.
The 29-year-old would even make envious trips in the sun to Dubai, shown in the video above, before being caught out by cops. Smirking Arnold headed up a gang of crooks who stretched from Lichfield and Tamworth to the Black Country.
Pretending to run a furniture removal firm, he was actually orchestrating £135m worth of cocaine, heroin and ketamine to be moved into the UK to be sold on streets across the city and beyond. Arnold, of Cremorne Road, Sutton Coldfield, admitted four charges of conspiracy to import and supply drugs – cocaine, heroin and ketamine at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, May 19.
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While awaiting sentencing, the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands (ROCUWM) unveiled the extent of his luxurious lifestyle funded by drugs.
Although pretended to be the legitimate boss of small company, Real Estates Removals, with a turnover of £50,000 a month, he was jetting off to cruise behind the wheel of a Ferrari and pose among the rich and famous in the United Arab Emirates.
Arnold would spend time on shopping sprees most people could only dream of – buying himself expensive jewellery and giving himself a makeover of bright, perfect gnashers to impress. Photos below show him proudly displaying his new purchases before his drug-running bubble burst.
The luxury sprees were out of kilter with his fake role as a removal boss and it all came tumbling down when French Customs came across one of his drug runs to Europe in January last year.
A staggering 63 blocks of cocaine weighing 71kg along with 99 bags with 101kg of ketamine, all totalling over £2.5m, were found in the Real Estate Removals van.
Further investigations helped police discover that Arnold and his team were hiding blocks of drugs in dummy loads of furniture. Some of their lorries and vans contained hidden compartments where drugs were stashed to get over international borders.
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Then in April last year, Dutch police found 1,477kg of cocaine hidden amongst bananas that had come from Colombia and was heading for Portsmouth. The haul seized had a street value of around £118m.
Det Ch Supt Jenny Skyrme, head of the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: “As the head of the crime group, Jonathan Arnold enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, driving luxury cars and enjoying trips to Dubai.
“The reality was that he was arranging tens of millions of pounds worth of drugs to be imported into the UK from Europe and South America, which would have gone on to cause untold misery and significant harm to communities.”
You can watch the moment that Arnold was arrested by police in the video above.
Others in Arnold’s gang include supervisor James Jenkins, aged 25, of Lichfield Street, Tamworth. He was found guilty of conspiracy to supply and also import cocaine.
HGV driver Connor Fletcher, aged 25, of Bridgnorth Road, Wolverhampton, found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine. The court heard he went on an overnight trip to near Amsterdam, returning with 60kg of cocaine hidden in two secret compartments built into the floor of the lorry.
Humayan Sadiq, aged 43, of Manchester, was found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine.
Two others on trial – Jack Bishop, aged 31, of Hockley Road, Tamworth, and Ryan Hatton, aged 27, of Trent Valley Road, Lichfield, were found not guilty of the drugs charges against them.
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