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Henry is led away after the police raid on the Regent’s Park estate in March 2007 |
STING NETS £Im CRACK RING 'MR BIG'
Bus-stop drug deals set up via gang’s ‘customer hotline’
AN undercover police operation has netted a shadowy figure known as Frostie, the “Mr Big” dealer behind a notorious crack cocaine market in Camden Town.
He was one of four men convicted on Tuesday of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Three other men and a woman had earlier pleaded guilty to the conspiracy, which detectives believe netted £3,000 a day – or £1 million a year.
The three-month operation saw detectives mingle with addicts to buy wraps of crack – known as “white” – and heroin, or “brown”, from dealers at bus stops and estates across Camden Town.
The main scalp claimed by the sting was Artley Henry, 24, known as Frostie. Detectives said Henry used a network of mules and runners to transport and sell cocaine and heroin to addicts who called his “customer hot-line”, two mobile phones on which he made 4,600 calls over seven weeks.
Prosecutor Brendan Morris said: “The drugs that come into Camden don’t come in by accident – somebody buys the drugs, somebody brings them in, somebody cuts them up. Don’t think you have to touch the drugs to be guilty. If that were the case the Mr Big would always get off scot-free.”
Henry insisted he was an innocent bystander “fitted up” by police and that Frostie was his wife’s cousin.
Judge Peter Murphy told the Wood Green Crown Court jury before the verdict: “In the end, the allegation stands or falls on whether you find beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Henry and Frostie are one and the same. We know that Frostie answered the customer hotline... and they [undercover police] identified Mr Henry as the man who answered to the name of Frostie. Mr Henry, remember, denies that he is Frostie.”
But the jury had already heard eight weeks of evidence and watched hours of secret video that proved Henry was “the Mr Big”.
Detectives established that Henry drove from Lambeth each morning, parking his Volkswagen Golf free of charge in the Maiden Lane estate and taking a taxi to Camden Town to do his business.
When undercover officers called to arrange a deal, Frostie answered the phone. Minutes later, Artley Henry appeared on the street. But he stood back, letting one of his runners make the sale.
Their mouths filled with drugs that could be swallowed at the approach of police, Frostie’s foot-soldiers were filmed selling wraps in Oakley Square, the Ampthill estate, Prince of Wales Road and Kentish Town Road.
Their favourite haunt was the bus stop outside Sainsbury’s in Camden Road, where addicts queued daily – joined by “test purchase” officers involved in the sting.
These detectives bought drugs from Henry’s runners, including some of the six men and one woman also convicted of conspiracy. The detectives, identified during the trial only as TPO John and TPO Paul, were praised by the judge for their “great courage”.
The operation culminated in a dramatic raid on a flat in Waterhead, a Varndell Street block that forms part of the Regent’s Park estate, on March 27 last year.
Inside, police found Artley Henry and associates Conroy Wilson, Wayne McLeod and Kevin Speid, as well as 150 wraps of class A drugs. A lump of crack lay on the window sill, scored with cut marks from a Stanley blade as it was prepared for sale. Through the flat’s open window, officers saw the car park below scattered with tiny wrapped packages of drugs.
Detective Sergeant Sean Tuckey, who led the six-strong Camden CID team that netted Frostie’s gang, was commended by the judge for running a “thorough and meticulous operation conducted with very great perseverance”.
After the trial, Det Sgt Tuckey paid tribute to his team and to Camden Council’s CCTV network which gathered “vital and detailed evidence” for the case.
He said: “Frostie claimed he was untouchable. But this case goes to prove you can be convicted without having the drugs on your person.”
Artley Henry, 24, and Wayne McLeod, 20, from south London, Matthew Nix, 39, from Boswell Street, Bloomsbury, and Conroy Washington Wilson, 37, who was on the run from prison when he was arrested, were all convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Trevor Gentles, Dorothy Pond, Kevin Speid and Peter Harris had earlier pleaded guilty to the same offence. The gang will be sentenced together in April. |
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