UK's 'coke king' busted on the Costa Blanca, Spain

Benidorm - Britain's criminals might just start thinking twice about moving to Spain to continue plying their "trade," as Spanish police have arrested a notorious UK drug dealer and "coke king," Brian Charrington, and several accomplices.

On Monday, Spanish National Police arrested Charrington, who is suspected of running an international trafficking racket involving cocaine from Venezuela.

Overall, police arrested 13 people in both Spain and Venezuela, including Charrington, who police describe as "one of the 10 criminals most investigated by European police and leader of an international drug-trafficking organization."

According to a statement, officers seized 220 kilos (485 pounds) of cocaine from an apartment in L'Albir, close to Benidorm on the Costa Blanca, and also impounded property and bank accounts worth more than €5 million ($6.5 million).

The organization used a group of drug mules to fly cocaine into Spain using commercial flights, and officers intercepted at Barajas Airport, Madrid a man carrying five kilos of cocaine in eight packages distributed across specially adapted underwear, pictured above.
 The Daily Mirror reports that the arrests have also smashed a further plot to smuggle tons of cocaine into Europe via "an armada of yachts."

57-year-old Charrington, who has his own Wikipedia page, used to operate in the North East of England during the 1980's. He rose to fame as a major drug baron in 1992, when a raid at his Middlesbrough home unearthed almost €2.3 million in cash, which was all allegedly linked to drug dealing. While arrested in 1992, he was never formally charged, due to faulty police procedures.

It seems he moved to the sunny Costa Blanca to avoid any further UK problems only to finally meet up with the Spanish National Police.

This news comes shortly after the arrest of yet another notorious UK criminal, Mark Alan Lilley, a convicted drug trafficker who had been on the run for 13 years. As Digital Journal reported, the man was caught by Spanish police in his villa in southern Spain, hiding away in his safe room.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354498

Spanish police nab one of the UK's 'most wanted' (video)

Despite being in a totally hidden, anti-assault "panic room" in his villa in Málaga, the 41-year-old man was arrested on Saturday after being on the run for years. He had received a 24-year prison sentence for drug dealing in the UK, in absentia.

Mark Alan Lilley is originally from Warrington in Cheshire, and skipped bail in 2000 after being charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, amphetamines, cannabis and cannabis resin, and for possession of a firearm.

In his absence, he was convicted and sentenced to 24 years in jail, and since that time has regularly featured in "Most Wanted" lists published by the UK newspapers and also by crime prevention units including Crimestoppers UK.

He was described by the UK National Crime Squad as one of the “worst types of drug dealers” who used violence against people who “crossed him.”

Despite the fact that he has changed his appearance with tattoos, shaved head and body building, he finally got recognized and was found to be living in a luxury villa in the Alhaurín de la Torre area of Málaga, under a false name.

According to the police statement, Lilley's appearance had "changed considerably" and that he had become an expert in "vale tudo," a "no holds barred" Brazilian martial art.

Once the Spanish police had traced Lilley's suspected location, they called on GOES, a Special Security Task Force, who raided the property on Saturday.  The video below shows the actual raid.

On entering the house, police found two men and two women, but there was no trace of the suspect himself. Apparently, Lilley's dogs had alerted him to what was about to happen.

However, after a thorough search, officers uncovered a wardrobe with a false door in the master bedroom.  This led to a security door opening onto a "panic room" and it turned out Lilley was holed up in there, complete with a computer, monitoring the CCTV cameras.

According to the UK press, the six-foot tall man was found to be naked.

While sounding like something out of a TV series, Lilley has been arrested at last and will be returned to the UK to serve out his well-earned sentence.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/353998