Drug barons behind £45,000,000 MDMA ring brought down by photo of pet dog ‘Bob’

Two drug barons who tried to smuggle a ‘colossal amount’ of MDMA into Australia have been ordered to hand over £1 million.

Stefan Baldauf, 64, and Philip Lawson, 63, were part of an organised crime group that planned to ship nearly half a tonne of ecstasy with an estimated street value of £44 million into the country.

But the plot fell apart when co-conspirator Danny Brown sent Baldauf a picture of his French bulldog Bob, with his partner’s phone number on its tag.

Investigators zoomed in on the number and used it, among other evidence, to prove Brown, 57, of Bromley, southeast London, was part of the conspiracy.

Baldauf, of Ealing, west London, also sent an image on EncroChat which showed his reflection in a brass door sign.

On Monday at Kingston Crown Court, Baldauf, who was jailed for 28 years in December 2022, was ordered to pay £1,007,637, the national law enforcement agency said.

He has three months to hand the money over or will receive an extra seven years in jail.

Lawson, who designed the drugs hide in the digger and arranged a welder to cut it open and then seal the digger, was sentenced to 23 years, according to the NCA.

He was ordered to pay £182,476. He also has three months to pay or will have three years added to his jail sentence.

The money will go towards further crime fighting and the Treasury, the NCA said.

Brown, who was jailed for 26 years, will face a confiscation hearing later in the year along with another of the group, William Sartin, 63, of Basildon, Essex.

The NCA said the excavator was hidden in Sartin’s industrial unit. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Chris Hill, who led the NCA investigation, said: ‘These criminals did not care about the misery and exploitation that the supply of illegal drugs bring to UK and Australian communities.

‘All they cared about was money.

‘So these proceedings are immensely painful for them, hitting them in their pockets, and are a crucial way of showing other organised criminals that the consequences do not end when the prison door slams shut.

‘The NCA continues to do everything possible, working at home and abroad, to protect the public from the threat of illegal drugs supply.’

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