The Colombian immigrant who became 'Britain's Pablo Escobar': How Jesus Ruiz Henao built a £1bn drug empire in the UK - all while hiding in plain sight

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

The Colombian immigrant dubbed 'Britain's Pablo Escobar' after juggling a TfL job as the driver of a London bus while running a billion-dollar cocaine empire has spoken out for the first time on TV, claiming, no doubt with little remorse, that he was a 'pioneer'.
Jesus Ruiz Henao, now 63, reflects on his 'Hollywood' life story in a two-part Discovery+ docuseries The Bus Driver: Britain's Cocaine King, set for release on Monday.
In his first ever television interview, the mild-mannered drug kingpin - currently a 'VIP' inmate at a high-security prison in Bogotá - told of how he sought refuge in London after becoming the target of Colombian cocaine cartels over drug deals gone awry.
He charted his journey to becoming the country's most notorious drug dealer - with Henao blacklisted as a 'career criminal' by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) alongside underworld bosses, fraudsters, and money launderers.
With what sounds like a hint of pride, Henao described how he flew under the radar for years before he was finally nabbed in one of the largest operations carried out by the Metropolitan Police - with more than 100 officers recruited to bring him down.
'My life story is a lot like a Hollywood movie,' Henao said, seated before a camera crew in the courtyard of La Picota prison. 'I was trafficking drugs for over 10 years and I was arrested and sentenced for [importing] over a billion pounds of cocaine.
'I was like a pioneer of cocaine in the UK,' Henao appeared to brag.
The new series, which premieres on Discovery+ on Monday, also features interviews with members of Henao's large family - including his doting younger sister Omaira and police officer brother Fabio, who revealed the cartels 'tried to kill me three times'.
'I hate drug dealers,' the nobler Henao spoke of his decision to serve in the narcotics branch of the Colombian police force. 'My brother, he never told me what he was doing because he knows what I think about all that.'
Fabio wasn't the only one fooled by Henao's gentle, salt-of-the-earth demeanour; in fact, the Colombian ran his massive drug operation for a decade while posing as a amiable bus driver before he was arrested in November 2003.
American journalist and Henao's biographer Ron Chepesiuk, who told Henao's story in the the book The Real Mr Big, noted: 'If you listen to such a story for the first time, it reads like fiction.
'A poor Colombian refugee becomes the biggest drug trafficker in British history - and nobody knew about it.'
On why he believes Henao went undetected for so long, Ron said Henao doesn't look like your average dealer.
'Most drug dealers are nasty. They kill a lot of people, they sell a lot of drugs without worrying about the consequences of it,' he continued. 'And Jesus is the most unusual drug trafficker you'll ever meet.
'He's soft spoken, he's very polite,' Ron, who counts himself among Henao's friends, added.
Before he became one of the world's most wanted criminals, Henao was a small-time drug smuggler in his home country, gripped by cartel violence against the backdrop of the Medellin and Cali groups' bloody rivalry in the Eighties.
In the documentary, which follows the cocaine trail from the Colombia into Europe in the Noughties, Henao recalled being gifted a bicycle by Pablo Escobar - the ruthless Medellin boss who became one of the world's richest criminals - at one of his political rallies around Christmas.
'My first bicycle in my life, I got it from the hands of Pablo Escobar,' Henao said, with a childlike glee.
Watching Escobar gave Ruiz-Henao purpose, he revealed, as the Pereira-native who grew up in poverty set his sights on becoming wealthy beyond belief - by whatever means necessary.
'I was thinking he has the power, he has the money,' Henao said. 'I want to be powerful like them. I want to have everything.'
Ron described how Henao and one of his early associates, Pedro, set up a 'mini cartel' that would buy drugs from the jungle for cheap and sell it in the city for double or triple the money.
'Pedro and Jesus were always scheming, trying to figure how they can make more money from the drug trade,' the true crime writer continued.
Henao knew from growing up in the cocaine-producing region that the American market had already been seized by the Medellin and Cali cartels, but the European market was wide open - one that Henao decided to own.
He was forced to flee the country after a few of his drug deals went awry and Henao ended up owing money to the cartels that he couldn't afford to pay.
After an assassination attempt, Henao moved to the Hendon in London where he recalled being enchanted by the culture, diversity, and 'moving stairs' or escalators in Tube stations.
His wife Maria contacted Jeremy Corbyn, long-serving MP of Islington North, to help them secure political asylum as immigrants forced to flee Colombia where they were 'endangered', he said.
Henao's application was refused twice but he, ultimately, secured indefinite leave-to-remain after his wife's bid was successful.
In the documentary, which includes previously unseen footage of Henao's arrest as police busted his drug operation, he recalled getting his bus driver's license before being assigned the 134 route - from North Finchley to University College Hospital in Euston.
'I was just living a normal, standard life,' he said. When people realised Henao - described in the documentary as a master 'manipulator' - was Colombia, he claimed, they inevitably asked him for blow before he realised he was sitting on a gold mine.
'When you arrived in the UK, did you intend to carry on dealing or did you want to go straight?' a member of the film production crew asked Jesus.
He replied: 'I wanted to just make a few pounds and live a normal life, but I already had my contacts for the cocaine and that was easy to start doing, to start dealing drugs.'
The film which releases on Monday sees how Ruiz-Henao set up a distribution network from Colombia via Spain and into the UK - all while posing as a respectable, hard-working immigrant.
One of the other ways Ruiz-Henao's lavish lifestyle that was, in reality, funded by drug money didn't raise alarm bells was because he won £100,000 in a spot-the-ball competition in the early 90s.
Ironically, it was when he decided to quit the business that Ruiz-Henao was arrested, as detailed in Ron's book that he co-wrote.
'After reflecting a long time, I decided to get out of the business,' an excerpt reads. 'The police were on to me. I spoke to my boss Sergio in Colombia and my friends there, telling them that I was getting out because of the heat that was on me.'
After he returned from a holiday in the Carribean, ready to move on from a life of crime that saw him earn £1 billion, Ruiz-Henao's associate-turned-informant Fernando finally helped the Metropolitan Police nab him.
He was sentenced to 19 years in prison at London's Southwark Crown Court.