Kevin Hanley, left, Matthew Edward and Kevin Harrison, right, and Chrysi Minadaki behind. Taken after they had lunched at Restaurant Bar & Grill, Brunswick Street, Liverpool. (Image: Liverpool Echo)
The operation that masqueraded behind a fruit and veg business was exposed following a rendezvous of its masterminds at a high-end Liverpool city centre restaurant, according to courtroom details.
The four kingpins behind the massive trafficking network – global drugs lords Kevin Hanley and his Greek girlfriend Chrysi Minadaki, along with fellow crooks Richard Harrison and Matthew Edward – were responsible for importing and peddling huge volumes of super-strength cocaine and heroin.
Yet, their empire started to unravel as they were spotted congregating at Restaurant Bar and Grill on Brunswick Street; this gathering provided the pivotal break the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Police Scotland needed to unravel a sprawling conspiracy, reports the Manchester Evening News.
It marked the first occasion the quartet was sighted together, prompting the law enforcement in Scotland and England, who had been independently trailing separate branches of the cartel, to realize they were facing one extensive criminal enterprise.
A covert agent who led the probe for the NCA said: “We had been following Hanley and his girlfriend Minadaki for some time, while our counterparts in Scotland had their eyes on Edward, whom they suspected of being a major player in the drugs market, and Harrison, who was his fixer.
Chrysi Minadaki was jailed for 17 years after “untouchable” drugs barons were seen meeting in Liverpool (Image: Supplied)
“Our surveillance brought us both independently to the bar in Liverpool, and it was the first time we realised the link between the two parties. It was a eureka moment where the two investigations suddenly became one.
“They all thought they were untouchable but their coming together in Liverpool that day proved to be the catalyst to their downfall. By working together, we managed to take out the whole lot.”
The surveillance operatives listened as the gang held discussions over lunch at the top bar, which recently featured in BBC crime drama This City is Ours, with CCTV cameras capturing them as they strolled away afterwards before getting into a taxi.
The breakthrough that afternoon – on November 13 2012 – enabled the NCA and Police Scotland to establish that Edwards and Harrison were customers of Hanley, who boasted of links to South American cartels, and Minadaki, who supplied lorries and fruit as cover for drug importations despite posturing as a TV presenter and radio owner in her homeland.
Drugs seized after “untouchable” drugs barons were seen meeting in Liverpool (Image: Supplied)
Further intelligence was uncovered by officers indicating that Harrison and Edward, Glaswegian natives, were orchestrating an £8 million heroin haul from Europe via Minadaki, who enticed them with a bargain on two tonnes of cocaine contingent upon their agreement to the deal.
Acting on a tip-off from the NCA, Italian authorities intercepted a Scottish lorry carrying 35kg of heroin hidden within a shipment of breadsticks headed from Greece to Bari on November 24.
As law enforcement began to dismantle the network, Hanley and Minadaki went into hiding in Greece.
Their cover was blown in July 2013 when undercover agents, banking on Hanley’s passion for rugby, predicted he would emerge from his Athens hideout to watch the British and Irish Lions face Australia. The arrest was made as Hanley settled in to view the match at an Irish pub.
NCA regional head of investigations Brendan Foreman revealed: “For all the high-end technology we used to narrow down the search for Hanley, it was good old fashioned policing that led us to the bar in Greece. We knew his love of rugby made him vulnerable and that he wouldn’t be able to resist coming out of hiding to watch a crucial Lions match.”
After being extradited from Greece, Hanley stood trial at the Old Bailey in London, where it emerged he had trafficked cocaine valued at £5m hidden inside watermelons and pomegranates.
The prosecution detailed how Hanley sourced cocaine from Venezuela and utilised John Fowler’s wholesale fruit and vegetable enterprise in Covent Garden as a facade to smuggle the narcotics into the UK via Greece. The gang also had plans to transport drugs concealed in strawberries, cauliflower, and broccoli before their scheme was thwarted by the police.
The court was informed that a raid on Lieutenant Fowler’s Chelsea flat uncovered £2.5m worth of cocaine, £200,000 worth of amphetamines, £61,000 worth of skunk cannabis, over £2m in cash and two counting machines. The Guardian reported that both Minadaki and Fowler were accused in court of repeatedly lying to shift the blame onto Hanley.
Kevin Hanley was jailed for 17 years after “untouchable” drugs barons were seen meeting in Liverpool (Image: Supplied)
Judge Wendy Joseph KC told Minadaki she had enjoyed a ‘glittering career in the Greek media, but by mid-2011 things were going less well’. She added: “Hanley could not have done what he did on the scale that he did without your help.
“You lied from the beginning, claiming to have been a vulnerable victim of grooming by Hanley, but that can’t be the case – you are no naïve girl but a hard-headed businesswoman who did nothing you did not willingly choose to do.”
The same judge told Hanley: “To spell out the harrowing misery [of drug dealing], it’s not just the lives of the users, but the misery caused to the families of the users and the victims of the crimes committed in order that drugs can be purchased.”
John Fowler was jailed for 16years after “untouchable” drugs barons were seen meeting in Liverpool (Image: Supplied)
The court heard Hanley had previously been a key lieutenant of Brian Brendan Wright, known as ‘the milkman’ because he always delivered. Hanley was jailed for 15 years alongside his mentor in 2001, but within months of his release and his licence expiring in 2010, he quickly fell back into his criminal ways.
Both Hanley and Minadaki received 17-year prison sentences for drug supply offences, while Fowler was handed a 16-year sentence.
Harrison had previously been imprisoned for laundering drug money through various property ventures and was sentenced to four years in 2007. Following his release, he became an associate of Scottish crime lord Edward, acting as a middleman in drug deals with other organised crime groups.
Kevin Hanley, Matthew Edward, Kevin Harrison, and Chrysi Minadaki getting into taxi after they had lunched at The Restaurant Bar & Grill, Brunswick Street (Image: Supplied)
Harrison played a crucial role in connecting Edward with Hanley, with the goal of importing substantial quantities of cocaine and heroin. He received a nine-year prison sentence, while Edwards was sentenced to 12 years in a Glasgow court in November 2013 for the intercepted heroin shipment.
However, both men received additional sentences of five-and-a-half years and six years, ten months, respectively, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine. According to prosecutors, the evidence suggested that Harrison and Edward had been “supplied on a large scale” by Hanley.
Mr Foreman from the NCA stated: “This was the disruption of an international crime network that truly spanned the globe.”