18 YEARS' JAIL FOR DRUG LORD
BRITISH drug smuggler Paul Monk, who was arrested in Jávea in 2015 in connection with the body of fellow expat Francis Brennan being washed up on La Zenia beach (Orihuela Costa) a year before, has been given 18 years in prison by a UK court.
Although there was not enough evidence to charge him in connection with the killing, which is still under investigation, Guardia Civil officers found enough to hold him and extradite him to the UK.
The 56 year old was sentenced at the Old Bailey on March 22, having admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs between January 2014 and April 2015, and was also given a concurrent four-year sentence for supplying cocaine in Cockfosters, north London, in May 2013.
The evidence at his Spanish villa included a replica pistol with a silencer, €125,000 in cash hidden in a plant pot, a fake Slovenian passport for him in a false name, and a notebook with entries organising the importation of 997 kilos of cocaine to the UK.
The court heard this would have had a street value of €59,820,000, which could have been almost doubled by adulterating the drug.
Prosecutor Tom Wilkins described Mr Monk as ‘a sophisticated career criminal who has been involved in drug trafficking in this country and overseas for many years’, and ‘was organising the supply of cocaine into Britain in very large quantities indeed’.
Judge Anuha Dhir QC said she was satisfied that he ‘played a leading role in the conspiracy’ based on the purity of the cocaine, his lifestyle and the evidence found, which supported the CPS assertion that he was ‘at the very highest level in the drugs world’.
She praised the work on the case by the Metropolitan Police, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Spanish law enforcement.
Detective Sergeant David Williams noted that Mr Monk had fled to Spain in December 2013 – at which time he was out of prison on licence during a nine-year prison sentence for importing €3 million-worth of cannabis in 2007.
A European arrest warrant was issued for him the following May and his photo was included in the Crimestoppers ‘Operation Captura’ public appeal.
DS Williams said Mr Monk ‘continued to run an international drug supply network from his home in Spain’.
A Guardia Civil spokesman assured ‘he hardly ever left to avoid being arrested’ and ‘he got other people to bring him food’.
The judge of the court in Dénia that was investigating the case, Lidia Paloma Montaño, told state news agency EFE that Mr Monk’s Jávea property had an underground safe room and he only ever left the grounds on a motorbike wearing a helmet to hide his face.
She said investigators are still convinced he was involved in the murder of Francis Brennon, who had been abducted in Jávea.
The judge noted his righthand man was Paul Scott - the head of a Liverpool gang accused of importing 40 kilos of cocaine in to the UK – who was arrested months before on suspicion of ordering the killing.
Sra Montaño emphasised the importance of law enforcement sharing information at a European level and the ‘demanding and particular’ character of the British authorities, expressing her hope that both countries will continue to collaborate in the wake of Brexit.
The UK’s liaison magistrate in Spain, Marc Robinson, agreed with her desire to maintain police cooperation after Brexit and he praised the speed and efficiency of Spanish investigators.