Bishop horrified as drug dealers use his church
ABISHOP told how he was mortified after drug dealers hoodwinked him by using his church for their £2m cannabis smuggling ring.
Paul Black said the damage they caused forced him to close Birmingham Pentecostal church and charity Vision Christian Ministries (VCM), leaving a congregation of hundreds high and dry.
Dalton Anderson, Alvin Russell and Sinclair Ory Tucker approached VCM and offered to donate food, brought over from Jamaica, for the needy, the bishop said. And the trio were initially lauded as Good Samaritans
But cans of calaloo, a Caribbean green vegetable, and akee fruit were crammed with cannabis worth £2m on the street, with the illicit cargo addressed to VCM’s base in Handsworth. Following a high-profile National Crime Agency investigation, the gang were snared at Birmingham Airport.
Last week at the city’s crown court, Anderson, 50, was convicted of conspiracy to import class B drugs and possession with intent to supply. Tucker, 64, and 45-year-old Russell were found guilty of conspiring to import class B drugs. They will be sentenced in January.
Bishop Black, who runs a West Indian grocery store, is still struggling to come to terms with the chain of events. “I am mortified,” he said. “I don’t know them personally.
They came to my wife and offered to supply items.
“They destroyed the integrity of our work, but we have to be like the phoenix rising from the ashes.”
To that end, the cleric has launched a new ministry, the Vision Temple of Praise.
He added: “My health has suffered and I have diabetes. But as a Christian, I have to forgive them and hope and pray they will view this as a mistake and see what they have done.
“Throughout, the police have been convivial and respectful of myself and my office. I am glad of that.” But he admitted “finger pointing and public scrutiny” had taken its toll.
Anderson, Russell and Tucker trafficked the 400kg of cannabis in three batches between March and May 2017. They were arrested at the airport on May 23 while inspecting the third consignmen; 5kg of the drug was also found at Anderson’s home.
Anderson and Russell had also spent some time in Jamaica where they organised the cargoes, handled money and providing shipping documentation to VCM via Tucker.
NCA operations manager Rick Mackenzie said: “Anderson, Tucker and Russell cynically used a Christian ministry as a smokescreen to import huge quantities of cannabis into the UK. They wrongly believed that this would put them beyond the reach of the National Crime Agency and our law enforcement partners.
“The NCA works closely with Border Force to disrupt and dismantle criminal networks involved in drug trafficking.”