Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Venezuelan police arrested 25 people, including members of the military and an Air France manager.
Venezuelan police arrested 25 people, including members of the military and an Air France manager, after a shipment was found. Photograph: Stéphane de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images
Venezuelan police arrested 25 people, including members of the military and an Air France manager, after a shipment was found. Photograph: Stéphane de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images

UK man accused of importing 1.3 tonnes of cocaine goes on trial in Paris

This article is more than 5 years old

Robert Dawes arrested two years after drugs transported on Air France plane in 30 suitcases

A British man believed to be one of Europe’s biggest drug traffickers has gone on trial in Paris, accused of importing 1.3 tonnes of cocaine into France.

Robert Dawes was arrested two years after the drugs were discovered inside 30 unregistered suitcases, transported on an Air France plane from Caracas to Charles de Gaulle airport. The cocaine had a street value of €240m (£217m).

Dawes, 46, was detained in November 2015 at his luxury resort in Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol after police intercepted a conversation in which he allegedly claimed ownership of the drugs.

At the time, Spanish police said he “headed up the biggest criminal organisation in Britain and Europe devoted to drug trafficking, money laundering and murder”.

Dawes, who was extradited to France shortly after his arrest, has denied the charges of drug trafficking.

He went on trial on Monday alongside two other Britons and three Italians, who risk up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to €7.5m.

Dawes grew up on the Leamington estate in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, before fleeing to Spain in 2001. Prior to emigrating, his name had cropped up in investigations from Scotland to London, where he is known to have associated with some of the UK’s most notorious crime syndicates, including the London-based Adams family.

Investigations were launched in 2007 into Dawes’ alleged links to the Italian mafia and South American cartels.

He was also being investigated in the Netherlands over a wave of murders there in 2014 and 2015, allegedly aimed at taking control of cocaine trafficking in several European countries.

From his base in Andalucía, Dawes is suspected of importing “furniture from China and fruit containers from South America, which he would fill with large quantities of cocaine”. His cartel also shipped heroin from Turkey and Afghanistan to Britain, Spanish police said.

Dawes mainly used shipping containers to move the drugs, but also leisure boats and commercial flights such as the Air France flight, they said.

The discovery of the Air France shipment caused a stir in Venezuela, where the interior minister admitted the suitcases had gone through security scanners that had clearly shown the presence of drugs.

Venezuelan police arrested 25 people, including members of the military and an Air France manager.

Dawes would allegedly meet regularly with representatives of South American crime empires, including the notorious Medellín cartel, at hotels in Madrid.

He is also accused of buying large amounts of drugs from Italy’s secretive ‘Ndrangheta mafia, which is thought to run much of Europe’s cocaine trade from Calabria.

Dawes’ alleged criminal empire is said to have stretched from Portugal, France and Belgium to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Venezuela and Mexico.

His suspected right-hand man, Emiel Brummer, a Dutch citizen, was arrested in April 2016 on the Costa del Sol in Spain and extradited to the Netherlands.

The Costa del Sol was known as a hideaway for British criminals in the past, especially in the late 1970s and 80s when there were no extradition agreements with Britain.

Dawes’ trial is set to run until 21 December.

Most viewed

Most viewed